


First Year

by littlebark



Series: The Path Less Traveled On [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-05-29 22:35:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 23,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6396745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlebark/pseuds/littlebark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The unlikely daughter of Sirius Black finally receives her Hogwarts letter. She knows of her father's past, but not much of her mother's. Knowing what little she knows about her father, she wishes she knew more of her mother. This story follows Kari Black through her first year at Hogwarts, and all the wonderful stories we know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My best mate (heylittleriotact) and I have been writing Harry Potter since we were fourteen? Fifteen? We were crazy enough to come up with our own characters in this wonderful universe and 10+ years later, I'm still stuck writing Kari. And the other characters we developed. I needed a space that wasn't my Google Drive to lay it all out where it makes sense, so here I am.

She could not stop grinning. 

An owl -  _ an owl!- _ had arrived earlier in the day, causing her mother to shriek as it dropped a thick envelope in front of her before taking off again. Karina Black, age eleven, looked up at the wide eyes of the woman who had raised her and then the wide grin of the man who had become her father.

“Well go on,” Keith Moore said as he shoveled more bacon in his mouth, his eyes twinkling, “I’m pretty sure you know what that is.”

“You weren’t lying,” she breathed as her trembling fingers opened the envelope. The crest was of four animals that she’d stared at her whole life - a lion, a snake, a raven and a badger. Excitement exploded in her stomach, and she jumped out her chair, “It’s  _ real!” _

Deidre Moore sank into the chair to her husband as their child raced around the room, reading about the wizarding school that would become her home for nearly ten months of the year. Kari stopped suddenly, a wild grin on her face. “I am a witch.”

Keith smiled at her fondly, holding out his hand to read it. “You can certainly act like it sometimes. Now go on, start packing for London. Term starts in a month.”

Kari let out a whoop and raced up the stairs, yelling “SORRY!” as the wail of a newborn filled the house. Deidre hesitated, glancing at the baby monitor and then up the stairs.

“Dee,” Keith murmured as he wrapped his arms around her, trying to stop the shakes going through her body, “we knew she was on loan. We were to give her a loving home, a safe home until her world was ready for her.”

Deidre bit her lip, “everything we’ve been told about her world, about what awaits her sounds terrifying, Keith. What if this wizard that killed her mother, that her  _ father _ followed isn’t truly gone? Surely a wizard so powerful would be have back ups.”

“Come now, Dee. Even these wizards aren’t immune to death,” he scoffed, heading for another cup of coffee, “Kari is a smart girl. Everything will be okay.”

The baby’s cries got louder and more demanding. Deidre shook her head, clearing the doubts away. Whatever lay ahead for the first child she’d fallen in love with, they would be there to support her. The newborn upstairs, screeching for her would be her priority for the next coming months.

Kari’s voice came in from the monitor, her voice cheerful and soft. “Hi baby. I’m going away soon. I don’t know if you’ll remember me but I’ll remember you… you have the best parents in the world. You have no idea how lucky you are that they’re  _ yours _ .”

Keith’s heart lurched as he heard the longing in her voice, the wistfulness. No matter how much they’d give her, it would never be enough. After all, they were not her real parents. They were not the faces she looked into most every night, the ones that filled her photo album. Keith had written the man that had dropped Kari off to ask for pictures, and he’d complied - though he’d not asked about her, which had bothered Keith. Remus Lupin had seemed broken up about having to give Kari up, but never intentionally set out  _ asking _ after her.

Sighing, Keith grabbed his keys and jacket, kissing Dee on his way out. It looked like he had tickets to London to buy.

  
*

Kari sighed happily, sipping her tea as her father talked to a strange man in robes. They had made it to London, met with this stranger and used his  _ chimney _ to get to this pub. Keith thanked the man once again, nodded towards Kari to follow them and her jaw dropped even further. As the man began to tap on the bricks, the wall began to  _ move _ and make way into an Alley. She let go of the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding and slipped her hand into Keith’s. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the windows, from the people, from the  _ things. _

“Mouse, you’re going to have to let go at some point. We have to get your things,” Keith teased as she let go of him immediately.

Glancing at her letter again, she frowned and said “I guess the bank is the first safe stop. I don’t think they will take our money.”

They made their way to the tall building, her stomach turning once again. This was it, this was  _ real _ . She watched as Keith stopped for a second before walking up to one of the tellers where a small being glanced down at them.  _ Goblin _ , the word filled Kari’s mind and she tried to study him without being rude.

“Good afternoon,” her father said easily, as if it was perfectly normal to be talking to a goblin. “This is my daughter’s first year at Hogwarts. I’m not a wizard, but she is.”

The goblin nodded slightly, “you’ll be trading Muggle money for Wizarding one then?”

“Muggle. That’s us non-magic folk then? Er, no actually,” Kari’s head snapped up, surprised that her father had declined the offer of exactly what they were here for, “she has a… where did I put it, why is it so damn  _ small - _ Aha! a key!” Triumphant, Keith held the key out for the goblin who frowned down at him.

“I thought you said you were not a wizard.”

“I’m not.”

“Then how is it you have a key?”

Keith let out an annoyed sigh, putting the key on the counter, “because she  _ is. _ She was born to wizards.”

Kari blushed as the goblin turned her gazed to her, clearly not bothering to hide the fact that she was under examination.

“What is your name, girl?”

His tone set her back stiff, her eyes narrowing. “Karina Black,” she said with what she hoped was a casual tone instead of the annoyance she felt.

The bank fell silent. Kari shuffled from foot to foot, and Keith cleared his throat, “so. Her money then?”

“We did not think a Black would be back to retrieve gold from this particular vault,” said the goblin.

Kari’s stomach plummeted, “so you got rid of it?”

It was the wrong thing to say. The goblin hissed, “of course not. This is a trusted and respected bank. The vault you own, however, has been untouched for years. It is surprising that it will have an owner once again.”

*

The ride down caused her to grin widely, laughing when Keith let out a whoop of delight. Finally, they reached the vault labeled 711. “It looks like very well guarded,” said Kari quietly as she peered up at the heavy door.

“It is a very old vault,” the goblin said gravely, “the Black name goes back centuries.”

The door opened and Kari’s jaw dropped.

Clearly the  _ money _ went back ages as well. Kari stepped inside tentatively, unable to release her breath. The vault was huge, with piles of gold and silver and bronze. She picked a silver one up, and turned to the goblin, “this is a lot then? In wizarding gold?”

He scowled up at her slightly, “it’s managed to maintain the Black line for centuries. They’ve added to it. As I’ve said, it sat here untouched for years.”

Kari swallowed. The Black line. Her biological father who was currently serving multiple life sentences in Azkaban, the wizarding prison.  “Is there… does he not have anyone else? Black line wise?”

“The Black line is quite large,” snapped the goblin as if bored by these questions, “there are cousins and aunts and nephews, all purebloods are connected. However, as he did give birth to a direct descendant of  _ this _ Black line, no. No other Black family member has been able to touch it.”

Her heart gave a lurch.  _ She had more family _ . Real family, family that shared her blood and history. Would she only find her father’s side of the family? Would they even want her, considering who she was related to? Did she even want to bring attention to the fact that her father had caused so much agony? “I don’t know how much I’ll need,” her whisper echoed in the vault, reminding her that even though she’d known about her parentage she had no idea what this world had in store for her.

The goblin moved forward and scooped several coins into a leather pouch before handing it to her. “This should be more than enough for your first year, Miss Black. Shall we return? I daresay this is a busy time for us here at Gringotts.”

*

She was exhausted and yet she felt like she’d never be able to fall asleep. Kari walked around the room she had been given above the Leaky Cauldron, unable to stop touching everything they had bought her earlier that day. Her robes hung in the wardrobe, her books piled high on the dresser. A cauldron was next to the dresser, where she’d wrapped and stored her brass scales, telescope and crystal phials.

Finally she came to stand in front of the case that held her brand new wand. Kari opened it and stared in awe at it: sycamore with dragon core, eleven and a half inches and slightly springy was what Mr. Olivander had said.

_ “The sycamore makes a questing wand, eager for new experience and losing brilliance if engaged in mundane activities. It is a quirk of these handsome wands that they may combust if allowed to become ‘bored,’ and many witches and wizards, settling down into middle age, are disconcerted to find their trusty wand bursting into flame in their hand as they ask it, one more time, to fetch their slippers. As may be deduced, the sycamore’s ideal owner is curious, vital and adventurous, and when paired with such an owner, it demonstrates a capacity to learn and adapt that earns it a rightful place among the world's most highly-prized wand woods.” _

_ “Sounds like its just the wand for you, Mouse,” Keith said softly, placing a hand on her shoulder. _

_ Kari gave him a weak smile before turning back to Mr. Olivander, “Sir? What about the dragon heartstring? What… what does that mean?” _

_ “Ah,” said Mr. Olivander softly, as he put her wand in a case, “As a rule, dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most power, and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tend to learn more quickly than other types. While they can change allegiance if won from their original master, they always bond strongly with the current owner. The dragon wand tends to be easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, though it will not incline that way of its own accord. It is also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental." _

_ At the mention of the Dark Arts, Kari’s eyes had flown up and locked with Mr. Olivander’s, “I don’t want it.” _

_ He chuckled, “it doesn’t work that way, Miss Black. The wand chooses its witch or wizard. It’s bonded with you.” _

_ “But I don’t want anything that has to do with the Dark Arts!” said Kari forcefully, pushing the wand away, “I can’t end up like him. I  _ **_can’t_ ** _.” _

_ Keith stepped forward, “Kari, didn’t you hear him? This particular type of wand is the easiest to turn-” _

_ “Exactly! Dad, I can’t-” _

_ “Kari, listen. It’s the easiest to turn but it won’t on its own accord. Mouse, there is not a single Dark Bone in your body. Not even when you’re just waking up,” he held out the wand out for her, waiting for her to accept the truth of his words. _

And she had. Kari held the wand in her hand now and she could already feel how right it felt, as if she’d been holding it there all her life.

There was a pecking from the window and Kari felt herself smile as she crossed over to open it. A tan barn owl with a heart shaped white face was waiting for her patiently, nipping her fingers gently once she pried it open. “Hello Hermes,” she murmured as she ran her finger down the soft downy of her owl’s feathers. It flapped its wings a couple times before flying out the window again.

Kari watched him fly away, no doubt searching for food. Feeling more content than she had in her whole life, she made her way to the bed and fell asleep.

*

“Blimey, but you do look like him.” Kari turned before being enveloped by a woman with bright pink hair. Stunned, she could do nothing but blink owlishly at the stranger who now held her at arm’s length with a grin on her face. “The name is Tonks,” the woman said happily as she turned and shook Keith’s hand vigorously. “I’d be a cousin to you, sort of. Once or twice removed. All purebloods get connected somehow.”

Kari tilted her head and studied Tonks. She couldn’t see herself in this woman at all, but liked her instantly, “Are you a pureblood, then?”

“No,” said Tonks easily as she sat down, waiting for them to join her, “My mum is your Dad’s cousin, actually. Favourite cousin, as I understand it. But my dad is a muggle. That makes me a half-blood.”

Her mind was beginning to spin. Weakly, Kari nodded and let out a slow breath, “it’s all so much. I still can’t believe it's real.”

Tonk’s face softened as she buttered the roll she’d reached for. She studied the young girl, her heart going out to her. She’d not have it easy, not with who her parents were. Tonks wondered if she knew. “Now then,” she said briskly, as she devoured the last of the bread, “the train leaves today, as I’m sure you’re aware. You’ll be sorted once you get there. Four houses in the school, and each has its own history. I was in Hufflepuff,” she winked at Kari, who looked dazed, “your Dad was in Gryffindor and your Mum, bless her heart, ended up in Slytherin. The majority in our family did, to be honest. My mum too. So clearly, they can’t all be bad, now can they?”

“I guess not,” Kari mumbled, thinking that from what she’d read and so far heard, she’d rather be anywhere else but Slytherin. She was going into this with the odds stacked against her. “Tonks? Will you be coming with us? To the platform?”

“I will. How else are you going to know how to get onto the platform?” With that, Tonks jumped up and rolled her shoulders, “I think I’ll look a little less obvious though. I’d hate to add to your nerves by having everyone staring. This pink hair does stick out.”

And with that, Tonks twisted her face in concentration and Kari watched, with her jaw hanging open, as Tonk’s face shifted so that Kari was looking at an older version of herself and her hair darkened to match Kari’s.

Tonks turned and smiled at Keith and Kari, oblivious to their gaping expressions. “well then. Shall we go?”

Getting there with time to spare did nothing to make her feel better. Kari looked at Tonks, who jerked her head to the train, “well, this is it then! You can go up and find a seat now, we’re still early enough that you’ll be able to find a decent one. Maybe.” Tonks winked at her, “I don’t know,  _ I _ never got here in time. Was too busy tripping over my own feet to get here on time.”

“I think it’ll be easier,” she said in a small voice, turning her back on the train, “if we say goodbye now.”

Tonks nodded slowly, “I’ll give you two a moment alone.” And with that she strolled off.

Kari swallowed the knot of emotion in her throat as she looked up at Keith, whose eyes were watery behind the glasses. Instead of saying anything, she wrapped her arms around his middle and blinked back the tears. “I’m going to miss you and Mom… and the baby.”

“I know, sweetheart,” Keith murmured as he ran his hand over the waves of brown hair on her head. He bent down to kiss the top of her head, sighing deeply, “I always knew this day would come. Your mother talked to me of her experiences in this world and when I found out she’d given me the honour to raise you, I thought I’d be ready for this moment. She always said that she thought it was the best times of her life, getting on that train. You ready to see if the same holds true for her daughter, Mouse?”

She shook her head, shuddering out a breath, “Dad, I’m scared. What if I’m not… what if I’m too much like  _ him _ ?”

“You’re not. No, don’t start, Kari,” frowning, Keith grabbed her chin until she met her eyes, “I may have never met him, but I knew your mother. You have the best parts of her, Kari. The very best. Whatever there may be of him in you can’t be that bad. You’re the brightest, happiest and most confident person I know.”

“What if I don’t make any friends?”

Keith laughed. He couldn’t help it. The idea was too ridiculous. Kari smiled sheepishly, taking his meaning. “Kari, you’ll come back with some many new names next summer that I’ll need a chart to keep track of them. You’ll write to us, eh? The owl-”

“Hermes.”

“Yes, Hermes. He’ll bring your letters and we’ll reply. I don’t know how we’ll be able to send you something if you don’t though….”

Kari looked at Hermes, who turned his wide eyes on her, “I think he’ll know if you need him.”

“Right. We’ll be fine, Kari. This is just a long summer camp.”

She nodded and felt Tonks pull up beside her, “want me to help you onto the train, Kari? I reckon you’ll need help with the trunk.”

“Yes, I think I will. Thanks. Dad…”

Keith smiled at her, and she felt her heart swell, “go on, Mouse. I love you.”

And with that, Keith turned on his heel and walked away.  
  
*

She’d settled herself and thanked Tonks, suddenly finding herself truly alone. Her stomach fluttered uneasily, but she rolled her shoulders and sat down. She had the compartment to herself and for the first time in her life she wished no one would come and intrude her privacy. Sighing, she sat next to the window and watched as people said goodbye to their kids. Her throat felt too tight and her eyes stung.

Frustrated with herself, Kari opened her trunk and pulled out  _ A History of Magic _ that she’d packed on the top so she’d have something to read on the trip. She sank back to her seat and began to read, her eyes occasionally looking out onto the platform.

It was then that a pair of eyes knocked the breath out of her. Kari frowned as she stared at the boy with jet black hair that stuck up all over the place. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his green ones though she couldn’t say why. He was having trouble getting his trunk up the steps, she noted and she licked lips.

She was about to rise and walk over to him, to offer him help when a girl with bushy brown hair and a stern face poked her head in. “Excuse me, is this compartment full?”

“Yes,” she heard herself say as she continued to stare out the window.

“Is it? It seems like you’re the only one -”

Kari felt herself hiss, “I said it was full. Go away.”

“You don’t have to be so rude. I was only asking because it feels like everywhere else is full as well and it would be  _ really _ awful of you to be lying about this.”

Annoyed, Kari flicked her eyes to the girl who was now scowling. “Listen, I’m waiting for someone, alright?”

Miffed, the girl sniffed indignantly. “Then it’s not full yet,  _ is  _ it?”

Kari’s jaw dropped  before she could help herself. Scowling in earnest now, she snapped, “what’s your name?”

“Hermione Granger. I’m a Muggle, I only just got my letter and -”

“Great, that’s great.” Kari glanced out the window again, groaning when she noticed that the boy was gone.

“You’re not from here, are you? Are you from America?”

Resigned, she turned back to the ever questioning Hermione Granger. “Canada, actually. I was born here but I’m…. I’m an orphan.” She swallowed past the lie, telling herself this was for the best. “The couple who adopted me lived in Canada and brought me there to live.”

“So  you didn’t know you’re a witch?” Hermione asked as she settled herself into the bench across from her.

Kari frowned at her. “I did, actually. They were friends to my parents. They knew about our world.”

“Oh, well that’s lucky then,” Hermione said brightly, eyeing Kari’s copy of  _ A History of Magic _ , “have you read all your books too then?”

She held back her chuckled quite well. Kari shook her head, “I’ve skimmed them.”

“I’ve read them all -”

“Of course you have,” Kari muttered under her breath.

“And I can even manage small spells now. How about you?”

Kari stared at her, felt the wand in her robes and wondered how difficult the  _ Silencio _ charm really was. “No. I haven’t tried anything yet.”

“I’m sure you won’t be too behind the curve,” said Hermione as she stood.

Annoyed, Kari rolled her eyes, “somehow, I think I’ll manage.”

Hermione Granger left as quickly as she had come, her spine stiff and purpose in her step. Kari let out a sigh and closed her eyes. Within seconds she had drifted into sleep, where she dreamed of a woman’s sweet voice laced with panic and being held as she was carried through bushes and trees. 


	2. Chapter 2

“Are you nervous?”

Kari bit back her groan and turned to face Hermione. “Aren’t we all?”

Hermione’s head bobbed up and down, “I’ve asked everyone if they know what’s going to happen, if they have any idea what the Sorting will be like. No one knows. I wonder why it’s such a big secret.”

Grunting, she shrugged and stuck her hands in the pockets of her robe. Her stomach felt like someone had released a million butterflies, and her throat suddenly felt too dry. She wished desperately for some water and when Professor McGonagall called for them to follow her, she was sure she wouldn’t be able to. She forced herself to fall beside Hermione.

“It’s not really the night sky,” Hermione whispered as she looked up the ceiling, “it’s just enchanted to make it look like it. I read all about it in Hogwarts, A History”.

“I know,” Kari said through gritted teeth, “I read the exact same book. For the love of God, shush. I feel ill.”

Hermione sent her a weak smile before focusing her attention forward. Kari took a deep breath, and looked up at the long table on the platform where all the teachers sat. Hagrid the groundskeeper who had brought them in via the boats was there, but beside that she recognized no one except Professor Dumbledore. She was caught staring him, and he sent her a small smile before she blushed and looked away. At the far end of the table was a dark haired man, one that Kari had never seen before and yet she could not shake the feeling that she had.

He also caught her staring. She was about to send an apologetic smile when his eyebrows furrowed into a dark scowl. It took her by surprise. Kari felt a flash of annoyance and she returned his glare before looking away. Surely she did not deserve the look of hatred that man had just shot her for merely looking at him.

“Black, Karina!”

She whipped her head forward, where Professor McGonagall was waiting for her to put the Sorting Hat on her head. Swearing under her breath, Kari tried to shake off the last bit of anger and walked in between the crowd to get to the front. Bounding up the steps, her stomach once again felt unsettled and her mind was a mess.

The last thing she saw before the Hat covered her eyes was a pair of bright green ones staring at her. She held her breath and suddenly she heard a voice, as clear as if it was standing next to her.

The Hat chuckled, “I see the legendary Black temper lives in you, girl. I pity whoever has earned your scorn. So much willingness to learn and be taught. I know exactly where you’re going….. GRYFFINDOR.”

" _Gryffindor,"_ she breathed as she yanked the hat off and grinned at Professor McGonagall. Her knees shook as she slid off the stool, relief leaving her breathless. The hall had exploded into cheering, the Gryffindor table clapping wildly. Grinning widely now, she made her way towards them and sat down beside two identical red-headed boys.

"Welcome to the best house in this school," a prim looking boy, also a redhead, said as he held out her hand. "I'm Percy Weasley, a Prefect for the gryffindor house."

Kari shook his hand, unable to hide her joy, "I have no idea what that means."

"It means he gets to act all boring because he's so _perfect,"_ one of the twins said, rolling his eyes, "our boring older brother. I'm Fred and that's George."

Turning her attention to them now, for Percy had returned his attention to the Sorting. See let out a slow breath, "hello boys. Give me a second, eh? I feel like I've held my breath for ages."

"Kari, right?" the boy who had been introduced as George said, "that was one of the quickest Sortings I've ever seen."

"Is that so? Sure felt like it lasted forever," she snorted.

"I bet I can guess one person who will be quicker," Fred said darkly, nodding towards a blonde haired boy.

George scowled, "Dunno why they're even bothering with Sorting him. Everyone knows he'll end up in Slytherin. There hasn't been a single Malfoy who hasn't been."

"Probably would be disowned if he ended up anywhere else but Slytherin," mumbled Fred.

Kari felt a pang of sympathy for the boy. She had wanted everything but to be in Slytherin, and here was this boy that wanted nothing but to be in it. She stole a glance at the table where she hoped his future home would be and decided she couldn't understand why he would want it.  

Hermione was quickly sorted into Gryffindor, and she made her way to sit beside Kari, a wide smile on her face. "Well that was exciting, wasn't it? I thought we'd have to answer some questions or demonstrate a spell or -”

“Potter, Harry!”

Kari turned her whole body forward, her breath catching. _Potter._ Harry, this was Harry. She’d seen pictures, of course. She _had_ pictures of him, in the photo album gifted to her by one of her mother’s mysterious friends. Pudgy faced with the emerald’s green eyes, eyes that had clearly not changed over the years.

“ _Potter_ , did she say?”

“ _The_ Harry Potter?”

Those green eyes scanned the Hall as he sat on the stool, and Kari held her breath. The Hat went on his head, over his eyes. She didn’t remember her mother or father, and knew it was impossible that she would remember this boy. Their parents had been best friends, she knew that. Had the Potters lived, would she have gone to them? Had the Blacks lived, would Harry have come to them? It made her heart ache.

“GRYFFINDOR!”

She let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding. Percy got up and shook his hand vigorously, the Weasley twins were yelling “We got Potter! We got Potter!” He sat down opposite the Gryffindor ghost, just across from Kari. Every cell in her body felt as it were buzzing with energy. Taking a deep breath, she looked towards the front again, and leaned towards George, “I’m guessing that red-head is a brother of yours?”

“The youngest Weasley boy,” chuckled George, “Ron. I bet he’s shaking in his robes right now. Can you imagine if he ended up in Slytherin after the lot of us have been in Gryffindor?”

“There's a lot of you then?” Kari asked, envy twisting in her gut.

George grinned, “my parents were _really good_ at one thing, and it wasn’t making gold.”

Kari felt her face blush furiously, causing George’s grin to widen. “Well,” she said as casually as she could, “as long as they were _really good_ at it.”

“GRYFFINDOR!”

Dazed, she turned forward and watched as Ron bounded towards the tabled to collapse beside Harry. “We missed your brother’s Sorting,” she muttered as she tried not to smile.

“It’s ok,” he said easily, “it’s not like its the only one.”

Fred turned to Ron, “Oh. We got you.”

Ron flushed crimson. Kari laughed softly before addressing Ron, “I hear there’s a lot of you Weasleys. I guess the novelty has worn off for these two?”

For some reason, this made Ron flush even more. Alarmed, Kari watched and wondered if his face would match his hair. “It probably has,” he murmured, “and you are?”

“Kari,” she flashed him a smile, hoping to ease the tension. “Ron, eh?”

Beside him Seamus Finnigan scrunched up his nose, “you talk funny.”

Everyone around laughed. Kari grinned, “I guess they figured it was too boring, with just you lot. Had to bring a Canadian to liven things up.”

“Her parents were from here,” Hermione pipped up, “she’s adopted.”

It was her turn to blush, shrugging as she nodded. “and that’s why I talk funny.”

“Blimey, Seamus,” Ron scowled at him, shaking his head, “why not ask her how her parents died?”

“How-”

Before he could ask the question, Dumbledore stood up and said, “Welcome! Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!”

Plates of food appeared. Delighted, Kari turned to Ron and matched his grin before she reached for the giant mound of food.

*

Tuesday afternoon, Kari found herself in the library. She'd shaken Hermione off, not wanting an audience for her research. At first, she had told herself that she didn't need to know who her family was. That there was no point in looking up the Blacks or Lowrys. She didn't even last to the middle of her first week at school before she decided this was rubbish, that she needed to know.

And so, she found herself in the library, a stack of genealogy books around her. She scanned the area, making sure she would have no interruptions. Satisfied, she took a deep breath before she opened the first book. Tiny, sprawling text filled the page of the tome. Her fingers flew over each name, eyes straining to keep up. She got to the B's and held her breath. Kari got to Black and slammed the book closed. Releasing a shuddering breath, she closed her eyes. She knew the biggest stain on her family was her father. No matter if her family was mean or didn't want her, they couldn't be worse than him.

She tidied up her area, taking the book with her to Madame Pince. "Bit of light reading," she said, smiling, when the librarian raised her eyebrows.

*

She was grateful for the noisy feet coming down the stairs. Her eyes stayed glued to the page, stinging with unshed tears. She refused to let them fall, unwilling to admit that she should have left her past alone. The fire roared, and she was thankful for it. She didn't think she would get warm otherwise.

Finally, Kari raised her eyes at the newcomer who only just now spotted her. Ron Weasley blushed and nodded, shifting on his feet. Kari smiled and turned her gaze on the couch. Relief seemed to flood through Ron as he made his way to the couch and sat down. "Couldn't sleep?" she asked.

"No. You?"

Kari shoved the book's cover to the side and shrugged. "I... No. I haven't. Couldn't."

Ron frowned at her. "Worried about your studies?"

At that, Kari snorted and grinned, “I learn by osmosis. Read it once and it gets stuck in my head.”

“Are you serious?”

Kari froze, her hand gripping the book tight. She lifted her eyes to Ron’s, breath held to see if he said anything else. When he only continued to stare at her, eyebrows lifted, she nodded slowly and said, “yeah. It’s…”

“Wicked, is what it is. Wish I could do that.”

She let out a laugh softly, smile sliding back onto her face. “So. Why look so embarrassed when I asked about all your brothers?”

Ron’s face darkened. Tilting her head, she began to tell him to forget it when he said, “I’m the youngest. I had a whole two years to myself, after Fred and George left. Well, sort of to myself. It was me and my younger sister, Ginny. But still. To be the oldest even just for awhile. It was nice.”

“I didn’t have any siblings until recently,” Kari admitted as she sighed, “and I guess I took being an only child for granted. Then Damian came along and I realised that it sucked having a brother. I’d been the baby for ages, and now I am a footnote.”

“Harry’s adoptive family sound bloody awful too,” said Ron sympathetically.

Kari blinked then shook her head as heat rose to her face. “No. No, I… the Moore’s were great parents. Even after Damian was born. I just meant… I didn’t realize how much I liked being the only one. I… his family hurt him?”

Ron shrugged, “I don’t really know. It’s only been a couple weeks.”

She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, unable to understand this flare of anger at the thought of someone being mean or hurting Harry. "Is he really THE Boy-Who-Lived?"

"Yup. He's got the scar and everything."

Kari let out a breath, thinking back to the chubby faced toddler in her album upstairs. "I'm sorry about your siblings," she said finally.

Ron laughed softly. "I'm sorry about yours too. At least here it's just you, you know?"

His words cut deep, and she sniffled. She was alone here. She found no mention of her mother's family in the book that now felt like a curse. Her father's family she already knew she'd want nothing to do with, for unbelievably, her father was not an oddity within it. She could not understand what Tori Lowry had seen in him, and had no one to ask.

Unless she went to Malfoy. The thought made her stomach roll and her head pound. And then... then she remembered one name, removed a couple times, but there nonetheless. "Ron..." she hesitated, casting her eyes to the fire. "We're alright, yeah?"

Ron looked up, bewildered. "Um. Yes?"

Kari nodded slowly before standing. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"I may need a friend or two," she chuckled as she rubbed her temples, "in the next while. You... It's nice having someone to talk to".

Her eyes found his, locked onto what felt like the only connection she had in this school. She'd isolated herself, unsure of how to begin friendships with these kids who knew who they were and where they came from.

Except Harry.

She thought of her father, the mass killer. Of Harry's selfless parents, giving themselves up for him.

"My father is Sirius Black." She said it softly, watched Ron's face closely. His face was blank, and she couldn't decide if that was worse that the fright she was expecting.

Finally, after what felt like ages, Ron nodded. "I know. I asked my Dad. Sort of. I talked about you, in my letter home.”

“And he knew who I was?” She was surprised. She had not found much on herself, other than the mention of Sirius Black having a daughter in that time.

Ron shrugged. “It was a pretty big deal, what your Dad did.”

Heat rushed to her face. “I'm sorry”.

“Why?” He peered at her curiously. “ _You_ didn't kill all those people, and you didn't end up in Slytherin so you can't be all that bad.”

Kari let out a bark of laughter. “A glowing assessment. He was in Gryffindor too, you know. And my Mom was in Slytherin.”

At this, Ron seemed surprised. Again he shrugged. “You're your own person. Don't let their past get you down”.

“More his past I'm worried about people finding out, to be honest. After him my mother can't be that bad.” Kari gnawed on her lip. “Do you reckon it's common knowledge? Who my father is?”

“No.” At Kari’s raised eyebrows, Ron said, “I had to ask my Dad. The only reason I knew who you were is that he works for the Ministry. I hear stuff. Sometimes I pay attention.”

She hesitated and then asked, “do you… do you know why he did it?”

“No, why?”

“Oh, no.” Kari smiled apologetically. “I was wondering if you knew.”

Ron laughed and shook his head. “Sorry, mate. All my father said was not to ask if you knew. He wouldn't tell me anything else except ‘be kind’.”

Kari felt her spine stiffen. Scowling, she snapped, “I don't need your kindness because you feel bad.”

Ron held her stare. After a second he said, “how about because I genuinely like you as a person?”

Stunned, Kari blushed furiously. “You just like me cause I don't bug you about doing the work right.”

“Because you don't bug _anyone_ ,” he grinned. “Kari, don't let what he did hold you back. Open up. People are curious about you - you can write your own future instead of letting them digging up your past and dictating your time here.”

For awhile the only sound in the room was the sound of the wood crackling in the fire. “Wise words, Mr. Weasley,” she said finally.

“I have my moments,” he stood, stretching. “Bedtime for me. I'll see you around?”

Kari turned her eyes to his, and smiled. “Yes”. She meant it. Whatever wall she’d built around herself, he had cracked.


	3. Chapter 3

She couldn't shake Hermione. No matter where she went or how hard she pretended to study, Kari found herself with Hermione at her side. By Thursday morning, the day of their first Quidditch lesson, Kari daydreamed of jumping on a broomstick and flying far, far away from the girl. It wasn't that she was unpleasant - though being constantly reminded of the rules was driving Kari  _ crazy-  _ but that she was always talking about something she learned in a book or a lesson she couldn't wait to get to. 

Out of the corner of her eye she watched as Malfoy snatched something from Neville, with Ron and Harry quickly jumping to his defense while McGonagall intervened. Kari smiled down at her cereal as Malfoy slouched away… and towards them.

_ Crap _ , she thought as she turned to Hermione. “Quick, talk to me about something.”

“We  _ were _ talking about something. Your technique in Transformation. You could've turned that match into a needle as easily as I did-”

“You didn't do it easily, your match just  _ really _ looked like a needle. You could still tell it was a match.”

Hermione ignored her. “If you'd just  _ applied _ yourself. You're a lot smarter than you let yourself show. Don't think I haven't noticed.”

Kari rolled her eyes. “So you'd think that you'd try to  _ not _ help me, so you could stay at the top of the class.”

“Having good competition helps me! It pushes me to further myself, since no one else seems interested in learning-”

“Hermione,” Kari sighed heavily, “we haven't even been here a month”.

“Black.”

Sighing heavily, she didn't bother to turn to stare at Malfoy as she replied, “in the middle of a conversation, Malfoy. Didn't your parents teach you it was rude to interrupt? At the the very least they could have bought you some manners”.

Malfoy ignored the jab as he sneered, “think you'll get knocked off your broom today, Black? Not at all worried?”

Kari smiled sweetly at him. “Malfoy, the only thing I'm worried about is that you won't shove that broom up your ass and do us all the favor of shutting up.”

“Miss Black, I am not sure what kind of manners they taught you in Canada but that is not how we talk to classmates who greet up here at Hogwarts.”

Groaning at her bad luck, she turned in her seat to scowl at the Potions Master. “Sir, I'm not sure if you know the student in question but I can assure you he did  _ not _ come over here to greet me. I was merely responding in kind.”

Snape narrowed his eyes. “I will not tolerate any lip from you, Black”.

Kari felt annoyance prickle within her. Beside her, Hermione hissed her name in warning. “Very well Professor. Consider me your meekest student. Am I free to go?”

In response Snape stepped aside. Malfoy snickered beside him. Kari grabbed her book bag, bowl of cereal forgotten as she stood and walked away from them. She felt someone walking behind her and snapped, “Malfoy if that's you, I'm gonna jinx the crap out of you and deal with Snape later, I swear-”

“Easy tiger,” George Weasley laughed as he held up his hands, “just wanted to talk. Cornered by Snape and Malfoy. Not a great way to start the morning”.

“I didn't even get to finish my breakfast,” she said as her stomach grumbled.

George grinned and reached into his pocket, holding out a bagel moments later. “I figured. Thought you could use this. I hear you have Quidditch class later, you'll need your strength”.

Oddly touched, Kari blushed. “Thank you. I was gonna try to sneak into the kitchens to knick some food but this will work.”

Raising an eyebrow he asked, “do you even know where they are?”

“Nope,” Kari admitted through a mouthful of bread, “but I'm resourceful. Would've found a way”.

He grinned. “I'll show you”.

Surprised but not one to turn her nose up at an unexpected gift, Kari gladly followed George.

*

She watched Harry be led away by McGonagall and her ears roared as blood rushed to her head. Beside her Ron stood, mouth open and stunned while Hermione whimpered about Harry being expelled. It was Malfoy’s guffaw that broke the spell and she spun around, pushing past the Gryfindors to reach him. 

“Kari,  _ no! _ ” Ron cried as he raced after her. “He’s not worth-”

Kari bared her teeth as she stopped short in front of Malfoy, almost nose to nose with him. “That’s twice today, you bleached whale, that you’ve pissed me off.”

Looking terrified and with nowhere to back up, Malfoy looked desperately at Crabbe and Goyle, who took a step forward towards him until Kari whipped out her wand. “You don’t know any spells to hurt me,” he said but his voice betrayed the doubt in his statement.

“Don’t need magic to make you squirm, do I?” Kari hissed.

And thought of her father.

It caught her off guard and deflated her anger. She refused to give into the blood lust that he so obviously had, ashamed that the first thought was to blow Malfoy up into a million pieces. Rather than let him see her back off easily, she held up her wand slightly -hating how him wincing made her feel a bit more powerful even if he was right, she had no idea what spell to cast to hurt him- before she lowered it. “We’ll wait and see what Harry’s fate is. You’d better hope it’s a good one, Malfoy.”

She began to walk back to Ron and Hermione, both who looked aghast at her rant while the rest of the Gryffindors grinned.

“We’ll see… _ Black _ .”

The way he said her surname curled her stomach. She didn’t give him the satisfaction of stopping, give him any hint that it bothered her.

She wondered what he knew, if anything, and how he would use it to bring her down.

*

“Harry is going to get himself expelled.”

Kari groaned as she stuffed a Chocolate Frog into her mouth, surrounded by books on her four-poster bed. “He was at dinner, Hermione. Whatever McGonagall did, he’s fine. Also, why are you telling me? I’ve never even met him.”

“He’s gone and agreed to a Wizard’s Duel with Malfoy.”

At this Kari looked up from her book and raised an eyebrow. “The-Boy-Who-Lived can’t be  _ that _ big of prat, can he?”

Hermione scrunched her nose. “They both are.”

“They?”

“Ronald Weasley.”

“Of course they are,” Kari sighed heavily before tilting her head. “Well, what are you going to do about it?”

“We’re going to stop them.”

“We?!”

“That’s right. Ron listens to you.”

Kari frowned. “We’re not… we’ve talked a couple times. Doesn’t exactly make me his best friend, does it?”

“Leave your robe out, we’ll stop them before they leave.”

She couldn’t help her jaw from dropping. “Are you even listening to me? I don’t -”

“Do you  _ want _ them to make our House lose points?” Hermione snapped as she reached for her robe, “it’s either we stop them or I got tell Percy.”

She thought of the strict face of Percy Weasley, of her plan to lay low for her seven years at Hogwarts and not interfere with people’s lives. Wondered how on earth she’d gained Hermione Granger as a shadow she couldn’t dispel.

A very pushy shadow.

“Fine!” Kari finally cried as she sunk back down into her pillow, “but I want you to know I’m not happy about this.”

Hermione beamed.

*

“Wake up, they’re coming down the stairs!”

She barely contained her yelp, massaging the spot where Hermione had jabbed her fingers into the side of her ribs. Glaring up at her and stifling a yawn, she sat up as Ron and Harry walked into the Common Room.

Hermione wasted no time in lecturing them. Ron spotted her and frowned, Kari shrugged and pointed at Hermione.

“Come on,” Harry said to Ron as he pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the hole.

“Well!” Kari said brightly as she stood up and stretched. “Can’t say we didn’t try, can we? Now let’s go back to bed before - Hermione!”

Hermione had followed the boys out through the Portrait. Kari thought about going back to bed for a second before snarling a curse under breath and following Hermione. “Unbelievable. This is not.. I didn’t want..  _ make friends _ , they said.  _ It’ll be fun,  _ they said. And who do I end up with? Hermi- what the blazes do you think you’re doing!?”

“Going back to bed!” Hermione snapped angrily, “obviously those two don’t care about anyone but - oh no!”

Kari’s eyes slammed shut as she sighed, “she’s gone, isn’t she? The Fat Lady?”

Hermione grabbed Kari’s hand, much to her annoyance, and raced after the boys. “We’re coming with you.”

“Are you  _ mad?!” _ Kari found herself hissing as she tore away her hand from Hermione’s.

“You are not!”

Harry finally noticed Kari and blinked.

Kari blushed, stuffing her hands into her red bathrobe. “She made me come with her.”

“I did  _ not _ !”

Before Kari could retort, Harry said sharply, “shut up, all of you! I heard something.”

It was Neville, who was also unwilling to be left behind. Kari couldn’t help but think that without Hermione’s daring “rescue”, Ron and Harry had a much better chance of being not caught. 

But of course Malfoy had no intention of showing up. Instead, Filch’s voice had reached them and Kari found herself glaring at Hermione furiously. They followed Harry’s lead and for a second Kari thought they would just get away with sneaking around after hours… and then Neville crashed into a suit of armour.

“RUN!” Harry yelled and they all sprinted down the gallery. Kari wasted no time looking back, close on Ron’s heels as Harry led them down corridor after corridor (she began to think he had no clue where he was going) until they ripped through a tapestry that led to a hidden passageway.  Hermione, once again, was berating Harry but Kari couldn’t even step in to tell her to lay off, she could tell by the look on Harry’s face that he knew she was right.

They hadn’t moved more than a couple steps when they ran into Peeves. She knew begging was not the answer to get Peeves to cooperate but knew that Ron taking a swipe at him was the worst thing he could’ve done.

Sure enough Peeves began to bellow, “STUDENTS OUT OF BED! STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!”

Which of course meant that the door at the end of the corridor was locked. She whipped out a bobby pin from her robe, remembering all those childhood movies where the hero saved the day but Hermione had grabbed Harry’s wand and whispered, “ _ Alohamora!” _

Which seconds later they found out was not another room.

It was a corridor.

The forbidden corridor on the third floor.

A corridor that held a giant three headed dog that had three pair of eyes that were all intent on them, three noses twitching and three mouths drooling through giant fangs.

Nobody said a word as Harry opened the door again and they all fell through it, breaths short and quick as they raced back down where Filch was seconds ago and finally, thankfully, to the Common Room.

She couldn’t even join in the furious and whispered conversation between Ron and Hermione as they walked into it, so stunned she was that she was sure she’d be speechless forever.

Hermione had stomped upstairs and Neville sat there looking petrified.

“Alright, sorry. Who are you again?”

Kari swung her head stupidly towards the question, saw that the colour was coming back to Harry’s face.

“Someone who will never ever listen to  _ her _ again,” she croaked. “Kari. Kari Black. I’m so sorry. She was going to go to Percy or get us to stop you and you know what? I wish I’d stayed in bed. Scratch that. I wish I’d never woken up this morning. I’m never going to listen to anything that witch says even again.”

Without waiting to hear their reply, Kari stood on wobbly legs and walked to her bed as fast as she could. 


	4. Chapter 4

**** She had her head on the table, pondering her life choices - or no choices at all since she seemed to have none when it came to Hermione- when someone sat down next to her. “Just go away,” she snapped without looking up, “leave me alone. I'm tired and more than likely to bite your head off”.

“Well that's not what I was going for at all”.

At the sound of Harry’s voice she looked up quick enough to make her neck wince. She peered up at him before sighing, “if you're gonna tell me off for following you lot, you're too late. I've been doing that since last night. I mean it, should've let her go to Percy.”

Harry grinned sheepishly, “that definitely would've gotten me expelled.”

Furious, she pulled the plate of bacon towards her as she snapped, “would have served you right. What on  _ earth  _ were you thinking, you twat?”

“Ron was right,” he laughed as he reached for the bacon as well only to have his hand swatted away, “I'm just going to get another lecture.”

Kari rolled her eyes and finally offered a slice of bacon. “I don't care that we could've been caught. Surprisingly I'm not as hyper sensitive about that as that lunatic. What I still can't get over is that… that…” She shuddered. “Well. Let's say it's definitely made a cat person”.

Harry grinned. “Kari, yeah?” When she nodded he hesitated before saying, “I heard you also went after Malfoy after I got dragged away by McGonagall.”

“‘Went after’ sounds way more awesome that it actually was. I lost my temper.”

“And drew your wand out at him.”

She glanced at the Slytherin table, where Malfoy quickly looked away. Letting out a bark of laughter, she nodded. “I may have done that, yes.”

“I don't even know you,” he pointed out but he was grinning.

“And I'm sure based on this horrible recap of yesterday's events, you're wishing that you never will.” She said the words jokingly but couldn't ignore the worry that he would agree.

Instead, he nudged his shoulder playfully and said, “and miss all the crazy stories that will surely follow you? Never.”

*

“You're doing their  _ homework _ now?!”

Kari glanced up lazily at the sound of Hermione’s shrill hiss. Glancing at the books sprawled on her bed, she shrugged. “I'm just looking over their stuff. With as busy as Harry’s been with Quidditch-”

“ _ Unbelievable. Truly. _ Out of all the people I expected to do this, it wasn't you. What about all your work?”

Scowling, Kari nodded at the pile of books on her dresser. “Been done for ages. Relax”.

“ _ Don't tell me to relax. _ I'm perfectly relaxed.”

Kari raised her eyebrows but said nothing. Hermione grabbed one of her notebooks and began leafing through it. Kari bit her cheek to keep from smiling. She'd always had a talent for putting in the minimal effort in class and doing exceedingly well in assignments. By the dark look on Hermione’s face, she was starting to figure it out.

“You can't possibly have done this well. It took me hours to research-”

Annoyed, Kari pointed her wand at the book in Hermione’s hands and said, “ _ pressim”.  _ The book snapped shut, nearly slamming Hermione’s fingers in it. “I listened to the lecture, and found what I needed. It just comes easy to me.”

“So that makes you think you can slack off?” Hermione snapped as she put the book back in her place. “If you do this good on paper, I can't understand why you won't do this well in class!”

“Maybe because I don't want to be known as an insufferable know-it-all!” Kari regretted the words as soon as they left her lips. Hermione’s lower lip began to quiver. Groaning, Kari started to get off the bed, “Hermione, I didn't mean it like that-”

“It's fine.” She said in a tone that did not sound very fine at all. “Truly. I'll just… I need to get back to my studies.”

Kari watched her leave, and could've sworn she heard her let out a sob. Feeling wretched, she lay back in bed and sighed.

*

She had lost her shadow. Kari was both relieved and upset by the lack of Hermione’s company. She still felt that pang of guilt whenever she saw Hermione, who avoided her gaze whenever they passed each other in the hallways. The upside to being left alone by the one person who annoyed Harry and Ron was that it freed up her time to spend with them. She had told them of their falling out, when Ron had asked why she was Hermione free all the sudden. Harry had seemed a little surprised, but Ron had said, “about bloody time someone told her. Maybe she'll take the hint.”

“It wasn't a hint so much as me yelling at her through a megaphone how I really feel,” she'd said miserably.

By Halloween morning, the guilt she'd felt had begun to ebb away. She had had friendships before that didn't pan out, and if she was being perfectly honest she knew that in the Muggle world, she'd never be friends with someone like Hermione. Too many rules and lectures and knowledge. She liked things carefree and fun.

During Charms, they were split into groups. She was paired up with Neville Longbottom, who she liked immensely even with as awkward as he was. She let him try and try to lift their feather, hearing him butcher “ _ wingardium leviosa”  _ over and over. Mentally she swished and flicked the right way, enunciating the words properly and knowing she'd try it and perfect it in the privacy of her dorm later. 

It was then that she heard Professor Flitwick congratulating Hermione as her feather floated four feet in the air, while Ron sat next to her with a sour look.

“Sorry, Kari.” Neville mumbled as he prodded their feather sadly. “Just couldn't.”

Kari smiled at him, shaking her head. “It's a tough one. Let's try it again, if you want? The words are tricky, I think that may be where you're getting stuck on.”

“You reckon?”

Shrugging, she said, “we can ask Professor Flitwick again, if you'd like. I'm sure he wouldn't mind going through the pronunciation again.”

“Oh, I don't want to bother him!” Neville said quickly as he blushed. “It just takes me a bit longer to get it.”

“How about I ask him? I'm still a little fuzzy on the proper way to say it myself,” she lied easily. When he nodded, she raised her hand and shook her head at his thank you. “It's fine, truly. We're here to learn.”

*

“Well that's the right bloody proper way to tell someone they're doing it wrong! Not be an annoying prat about it.” Ron said to Harry and Kari later when they talked about Charms. “It's no wonder no one can stand her. She's a nightmare, honestly.”

“I think she heard you.”

She didn't need to ask Harry who he meant. Hermione’s bushy hair was speeding away from them, having just knocked into Harry to get past them. That horrible feeling of guilt returned and she groaned.

*

They were on their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween Feast when they overheard Parvati Patil tell Lavender Brown that Hermione was crying in the girl’s bathroom and wanted to be left alone. They stopped in their tracks, looking at each other before the boys turned to Kari. 

“Oh no,” she said quickly as she shook her head. “No way. I didn't say she's a nightmare.”

“But you  _ did  _ imply she was an insufferable know-it-all,” Ron pointed out.

“Ron’s comment was just… the icing on the cake,” Harry said with a grimace.

At the mention of cake, her stomach growled. “Why do I have to go?”

“Because she's in the  _ girl’s bathroom _ . We can't go in there!” said Ron as he tried to hide his grin.

Unable to argue with that logic, Kari snapped, “fine! I'll go. But save me a seat. And food. Lots of food. I'm starving. No promises on bringing her back.”

“Just tell her we're sorry or something,” Ron said as they walked out of the common room.

Kari rolled her eyes. “Very helpful, thanks. Would've never figured that out on my own. Prat.”

She made her way to the girl’s bathroom. Slowly. She had never been very good at apologizing, and felt like some of the blame of the fell on Hermione. No one had asked her to interfere we their studies. Grimacing, she knew it'd be best if she didn't start like that.

Taking a big breath, and once again grumbling about the lie that friends made things good, she opened the door to the girl's bathroom and said softly, “Hermione?” She heard the sniffling before she saw her. Sighing she said a bit more loudly, “Hermione, it's me.”

The sniffling quieted down before Hermione said, “please go away.”

Biting her lip, Kari said, “he didn't mean it like that.”

“Oh yes he did. And so did you. And it's fine if you don't want to be friends. I was only trying to help”.

Kari rolled her eyes. “Not everyone wants to be helped. And that's okay. You're still a brilliant witch who could whoop us on any theory of magic.”

“But not the magic itself,” Hermione shot back. “I know what you're doing, hiding how good you are.”

Surprised, Kari blinked before asking, “is that what you think I'm doing? Hiding how good I am so I can swoop down and take the title from you?”

“Why else would you hide it?”

She let out a huge huff of breath before she slid down the other side of the of the door where Hermione was barricading herself. How to explain that she hid how well she could handle what they taught them because she was terrified of being as good as her father? She didn't think she could handle the comparison. “I just don't like the attention the teachers give if you do good,” she lied with a grimace. “I’d much rather a written glowing compliment than have to accept it in front of the class. Not because I don't think it'll make me a teacher’s pet, I don't care about that. It's just… if I do well, I set up a precedent of how good they think I'll keep doing. What if I don't? I'm not as brilliant as you think, this is just fluff First Year stuff.”

“But you already grasp it so well,” Hermione said miserably as she blew her nose, “while I have to study and study to do just a bit better than you.”

“The perks of being a Pureblood, I guess.”

“You didn't know you were a witch.”

Kari frowned. “I did. I just didn't get taught at home like all the other ones did. I don't know, Hermione, maybe it's just in my blood. Who knows how far back my blood goes.” She knew. She knew exactly how far it went and all the darkness that went with it. Suppressing a shudder, she whispered, “I'm not trying to take anything from you. Promise. You're the brightest witch of our age, and I admire you for that. I can't believe you're worried anyone is going to take that away from you”.

Moments later, Kari yelped as the door to the cubicle opened and she fell backwards. “I'm not,” Hermione said as she helped Kari up, “it's just been a tough couple weeks.”

Smiling slightly, she followed Hermione to the sink. “We’re the idiots. You were just trying to help. Come enjoy the feast. It smelled amazing.”

She thought she heard the door close, and wondered why she didn't hear it open. Before she could say anything, Hermione was saying, “I can't promise I won't be as passionate about your studies in the future.”

Kari laughed. “I'd be worried if you did. I'd have to call you a liar”.

It was then and only then that they turned and saw a giant beast in front of them. Stunned and suddenly frozen, Kari whimpered, “is that a troll?”

“Yes,” squeaked Hermione before letting as petrified scream as the troll began to advance on them.

Kari watched it with wide eyes before finally breaking through the haze to yell, “we have to  _ move _ !”

Neither seemed to be able to. Kari reached for her wand and came up empty, and she vaguely remembered leaving it up in her trunk because why would she possibly need it at the Feast?

The troll stopped a couple feet from them. It was then that she heard the voices of Harry and Ron, confusing the troll.

“Come on, run,  _ run _ !” Harry yelled at them.

Kari grabbed Hermione’s hand but neither seemed to be able to move.

What happened next happened much too fast for Kari to understand. Harry had jumped on the troll’s club, causing her to finally be free from the fear that paralyzed her and ran forward, chucking debris at the troll as hard as she could while it tried to seize Harry. She vaguely heard Ron yell the levitation spell, correctly this time, and the club flew high into the air before falling down on the troll’s head with a horrifying crunch.

She was frozen again, hand in the air mid-throw, a piece of wood in it.

“Is it dead?” Asked Hermione.

Kari began to gag, holding onto the stall for support as Harry said it was just knocked out. Ron rushed over, handing her a towel to wipe her face. She was about to do so when they heard loud footsteps came crashing through and suddenly McGonagall was there and then Snape with Quirrell. Her stomach felt very queasy.

And then, in the middle of the barrage of questions that McGonagall was fielding at Harry and Ron, and not quite at Kari, she heard Hermione’s voice. “Please Professor McGonagall - they were looking for me”.

Kari didn't think her jaw could hang any lower. Here she was, listening to rule lover Hermione Granger,  _ lie _ to not one teacher but three about how she had set out to find the troll. She stole a glance at Ron and Harry, the later who caught her eyes and looked just as stunned as she did. From the corner of her eye, she saw Snape scowl darkly as he looked between Kari and Harry.

They were quickly dismissed, having points taken away and then awarded some -Snape’s scowl deepened even further, a feat she found impressive. They hurried out of the bathroom and back to the Common Room where food awaited them. She noticed Hermione exchange thanks with them before hurrying off. Harry and Ron joined her, having found a spot by the fire and already shoveling food in her face. “Well,” she said through a mouthful, “she's not all that bad then, is she?”

She  waited for their nod before catching Hermione’s eye and waving her over. Kari ate quietly with the three people she'd now seen more with than she ever wanted to see in her magical life.


	5. Chapter 5

Kari found herself following Fred and George to the kitchens when she heard her name being called. She turned around, surprised to find that it had been Snape. The twins froze, waiting for her response. “You two go on,” she said quickly with what she hoped was a brave smile, “I'll catch up.”

George glanced at Snape quickly before saying, “I'll see if I can't find some sort of chocolate dessert.”

“After whatever is coming, I'm sure you'll need it,” muttered Fred with a grin.

“You two clearly know the way to my heart.” She waved at them before sprinting back to Snape, running her hand through her hair. “Yes?”

“Yes, Professor,” he corrected darkly before strolling towards the dungeons.

Kari blinked after him, before walking after him. Frowning, she noticed his limp. “Is your leg alright, sir?”

He paused before snapping, “that is none of your concern”.

“Old age is nothing to be ashamed of, Professor.” She said it brightly, hoping to break whatever animosity this man had towards her. When he said nothing, she shoved her hands in her robes and followed silently.

“Sit”, he commanded once they'd reached his classroom. When she didn't, Snape said slowly, “don't tempt me into taking points away for disobedience, Miss Black”.

Glaring, Kari sunk into the chair. “I haven't done anything.”

Snape raised an eyebrow. “Guilty conscience, Black?”

“No. I just figured we'd get that out of the way before you lecture me for whatever it is you have me here for.”

He held her stare before he began to pace. “It's come to my attention that you're settling into Hogwarts.”

Whatever she was expecting, it was not this. “I have,” she said slowly.

“Based on the event of Halloween night, you seem to have fallen in with a crowd that will no doubt bring you more misery and trouble as you go on.”

Silence fell around them. Blood had rushed into her head, her ears roared. There was no caring in his face, no concern. Only anger. “Clearly you're not giving me this warning out of the goodness of your heart, Professor, so I'll tell you the same thing that Harry told Malfoy-”

“Watch yourself, Black”.

Kari shot up out of the chair, her face set into a steely glare. “I think I can figure out the good and the bad for myself, thank you very much. Is that all, Professor?”

Snape was still for a second before inclining his head. “You're free to go. I've said my piece.”

“Don't,” she snapped as she walked out the door, “you don't know me or owe me anything.”

She was shaking by the time she reached the kitchen. George grinned over his shoulder before noticing the dark look on her face. “That bad?”

“He just wanted to talk to me about an essay,” she lied before grabbing the bar of chocolate from his hands. Kari bit into it, feeling warm again instead of the biting cold fury she'd felt ever since she'd left Snape’s office. She joined in with the twin’s jokes, though not as wholeheartedly as she normally would have before excusing herself, the headache that had settled was suddenly too much to pretend joy when all she wanted to do was go back and tell Snape where he could stuff his advice.

She made her way back upstairs, and found Harry who was huddled with Ron and Hermione. They quickly filled her in on Harry’s guess that Snape had let in the troll as a diversion so he could steal whatever was under that dog. Kari’s mind flashed to Snape’s leg, mulling this new information over. When they asked for her opinion, she shrugged and didn't say anything.

There was too much in her mind to make sense of.

*

Kari loved Quidditch. She'd always hold a special spot for hockey (something she had tried explaining to Ron, going in loops before promising to show when once the lake froze over) but she  _ loved _ Quidditch. She sat beside Ron, a Gryffindor flag in one hand and cheered loudly when their team scored. The rules were surprisingly easy- as long as Harry caught the Snitch, they'd win.

“But no pressure!” She'd laughed earlier that morning as his face turned green.

She also loved Lee Jordan’s commentary, even when McGonagall tried censoring him. A friend of the twins who she'd met earlier on and was promised a hell of a show during this match, she couldn't wait to tell him how right he was.

Until Harry’s broom started bucking. Kari shot out of her seat, her breath knocked out of her lungs as she watched him cling desperately to it. Hermione had snatched Ron’s binoculars, scanning the crowd before saying “I knew it. Snape - look.”

She couldn't. She could not take her eyes off Harry, refusing to look down and imaging a plunge below. “Where is she going?” Kari asked Ron over her shoulder as Hermione raced off.

He came to her side. “I don't know. She reckons Snape is jinxing the broom.”

At this, she tore her gaze from Harry to the crowd, grabbing Ron’s binoculars to locate Snape. He was muttering, eyes fixed on Harry. A surge of fear went through her - what hope could a first year have against him? More importantly  _ why _ would he be doing this to  _ Harry? _ “It doesn't make any sense,” she muttered before racking her mind for  _ any _ spell that would help Harry. The Weasley twins were circling him, surely to catch him if he fell. “I'd try the spell you used on the troll but that will only lift him higher before dropping him.”

Her attempt at humour got a weak laugh out of Ron. Finally,  _ finally _ , Hermione had done whatever she had set out to do before Snape shot up, smoke coming from him. Kari grinned darkly before looking up, relieved, when Harry had managed to climb back onto his broom.

And then he was speeding to the ground. Alarmed, Kari cried out. Had the spell that Snape been muttering not worn off?

He hit the field, landed on all fours and then coughed. “I've got the Snitch!”

Kari burst out laughing, relief coursing through her before finding Snape again in the crowd. This was not over.

*

Later, while the school celebrated Gryffindor’s win, Kari found herself in Hagrid’s hut. He was very cross, having just spent the last 15 minutes listening to a bunch of kids tell him a teacher was trying to kill Harry.

And then he'd said the name Nicholas Flamel. Kari had no idea who that was or why he was friends with Dumbledore but Hermione was anxious to find out. Ron and Harry followed after her, but Kari shook her head before doubling back. “I think I forgot my scarf,” she told them, knowing full well she'd left it there on purpose.

She pounded on Hagrid’s door, ruling up his hound. Grinning meekly as he opened the door, she said, “my scarf. I think I left it here.”

“Oh,” he shuffled uncomfortably, moving aside, “well go on and look for it.”

She didn't miss the way he avoided her gaze, and felt her stomach sink. “You knew my father.”

Hagrid blinked. Nodding, he muttered, “I-”

“I'm not him,” she said before he finished his sentence. Kari knew how warm and friendly he was with all of them, and how this felt nothing like it when it was just the two of them. “I know he did terrible things. But I'm not him. I'm hoping I'm more like my mother. I'm not him.”

Sighing, Hagrid said, “yeh sure look like him. It's hard ter forget yer half your mother.”

He might as well have poured a bucket of cold water on her. “Well.” She said as she snatched her scarf and swallowed past the ball of tears that had lodged in her throat. “There's nothing I can do about that. All I can do is prove that I'm nothing like him.”

“That's an awful heavy load for a kid,” Hagrid said as he poured them tea. “It's not somethin’ yeh should worry about. Harry-”

“Doesn't know.” She said it firmly and added, “neither does Hermione. And I don't intend on them finding out unless they absolutely have to.”

Smiling, Hagrid nodded. “Yeh got a lot more of yer mun than I thought yeh would”.

Surprised, Kari blushed. She stood up, closing her eyes and said, “please don’t think of me as my father.”

Laughing, Hagrid replied, “it seems like I couldn’ if I tried. Nice ter finally meet yeh, Kari.”


	6. Chapter 6

Kari found herself rereading the letter from her parents that poor Hermes had delivered in a snowstorm that had put even her Canadian one's to shame. Kari traced her fingers over it, reading her adoptive father’s messy scrawl that asked if she'd be home for Christmas. She wondered why she wasn't more excited to go back, to tell them of everything she'd seen and learnt. Slowly, guilty, she dipped her quill into her ink, and wrote back that she had a lot to study for. That she missed them. That she'd see them in the summer. 

She stared at it a full five minutes before giving it back to Hermes. “Go to Hagrid’s,” she instructed as she pet his head. He hooted gratefully. “He's fixing up all you crazy ones flying through this. Be careful.”

He nipped at her fingers playfully before flying off. Sighing and trying not to feel too bad, she pushed away from the desk to find George standing close by, eyebrows raised in question. When he said nothing, she scowled, “what?”

“You look annoyed,” he said simply as he flopped onto the couch unceremoniously.

A snort escaped she but she went to him and fall into the other end of the couch. “I just told my parents I'm staying here for Christmas. It's such a long trip back home.”

“Liar,” said George brightly, laughing at the surprised and angry look on her face. “You barely talk about them, Kari. You love them but you love it here more. S’alright, you know. It's your first year. Loads to see. Besides, the Weasley lot is staying here too. We'll have a blast.”

She smiled at him, trying to not feel too much guilt over choosing this place that felt like home. He was right. She felt happy here, she belonged here. “Does that make me a bad person?”

He shook his head. “No. And stop worrying about it. Come on, Fred was going on about romping around in the snow. You must like snow, being from up there and everything.”

Kari couldn't help but laugh as she bounded up her dormitory to grab her scarf, the thought of her family all but forgotten.

*

She woke Christmas morning with presents stacked on her bed. Yawning widely, she reached for the one with her parents’ writing. A photo album, a normal Muggle one, held pictures of her family. Of a life she was no longer a part of, until she saw them in the summer. 

_ We miss you, _ the letter said,  _ We hope you're having the time of your life. Stay safe and learn loads. _

_ PS: we added the presents you requested for your friends. _

Delighted, she set the presents for Harry, Ron and the twins aside. She opened one wrapped in brown paper and pulled out a purple sweater, a box of fudge within it.  _ Fred and George told us all about you! We hope you have a very happy Christmas, Kari. _

It was from their parents. Blushing brightly, she quickly put it on and grinned. Grabbing the presents for her friends, she walked to Harry and Ron’s dormitory. “Merry Christmas!” she said happily as she walked in, tossing them their presents.

“ _ You  _ got a jumper too?” Ron cried out.

“Yes! Isn't it grand?” Kari said with a grin, “it's very cozy.”

Ron frowned, “I-”

“We're just better friends,” George said as he dug into the present she'd just given him, “we told Mum about her.”

Blushing furiously, Ron snapped, “ _ I've  _ told Mum about her!”

“It's okay, Kari. Now you know who your true friends are,” Fred said as he winked. “Now what's this then?”

“Comic book,” she said through a mouthful of Harry’s fudge. “The Flash. Wally West. He reminded me of you two.”

George chuckled as they leafed through the books. “The pictures don't move.”

“I had to get my Muggle parents to get them for you lot!” Kari said defensively. “so you either like them or you like them.”

Ron marveled over his head scratcher and Harry laughed at the sports injury basket of goodies she'd asked for him. She laid out on his bed and fell asleep, knowing the how different Christmas would be back home.

*

The one present Harry had not told her about with the twins present was the Invisibility Cloak. She'd been a little annoyed but quickly got over it as he told her and Ron about the mirror he'd stumbled upon the previous night as he’d used the cloak to go into the Restricted Area in the library. He talked about seeing his parents with such love and longing, and it made Kari think of the photo album upstairs that held pictures of his family. She wondered how she could show them to him without having to explain  _ why _ she had them. 

“Are you in?”

Kari blinked stupidly at him. “The mirror? Tonight? Course. I'd… I'd love to meet your parents.”

By the time they got to the mirror, her stomach felt as if someone had let a million butterflies loose. Ron stood in front of it first, excited not at seeing Harry’s parents but himself. As all the things that she doubted she'd ever be. Understanding slammed into her at full force - somehow, someway this mirror showed what you wished for. Harry and his family. Ron not being overshadowed by his siblings.

_ And me? _ She wondered as she took a step back.  _ What do I wish for. _

“Kari!”

Holding her breath, she shook her head. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“It's just a mirror,” Harry snapped angrily, “go on, take a look. I want a turn next.”

She glared at him, but stepped forward nonetheless. Finally she raised her eyes to the mirror, expecting to see her own reflection but instead she saw a small girl staring back at her. “It's me,” Kari breathed as she stepped forward to touch the mirror, “as a kid.”

“As a kid? That's odd-”

And then she let out a cry. The child-version Kari was laughing as a man picked her up, spinning her around. He finally stood still and grinned down at her.

Sirius Black was holding her and she wasn't trying to get away.

Vaguely she could hear Ron calling her name. She couldn't respond, and then suddenly there was a woman with stunning ice blue eyes and curly night dark hair. She came up behind Sirius and draped her arms around him, tickling Kari. It was happy, so happy. Too happy.

“Kari!” Harry cried in alarm.

She tore away from the mirror, refusing to see a second longer of that lie. It could not possibly be what she wanted. “It was my parents,” she choked out.

Harry looked at her, a sympathetic smile on his face. “Miss them? You were very lucky to end up with loving adoptive parents.”

She avoided his gaze and mumbled an answer, grateful when Harry said they should leave. Ron’s knowing look did not go unnoticed.

*

“It was your real parents, wasn't it?”

She looked up at the sound of Ron’s voice. Kari could not sleep, and found herself parked in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room. “Was it that obvious?”

Rob shook his head as he settled into the couch. “Not to Harry. He thinks you miss the ones that raised.”

“I do,” she sighed. “Ron, why would I see myself as a young child with my real parents in the picture?”

“Blimey, Kari. They're still your parents, no matter what he did. Don't you wonder, even a little, what life could've been?”

She sniffled, wiping a tear from her eye. “Yes. But I don't want to. Ron… I look nothing like my mother.” Kari pulled a picture she'd taken from her photo album.

Ron studied it. “You don't… She's beautiful, Kari. Why is it folded?”

“Ron, no, don't!”

But it was too late. He'd unfolded it, and next to her mother was the handsome face of Sirius Black. “Bloody hell. You look just like him.”

Angry, she snatched the photo from him. Kari glared down at it, at Sirius’ wide grin and Tori’s eye roll. “I know. I'm his portrait. Lucky, lucky me.”

Sheepishly, Ron rubbed his neck. “I didn't mean to… upset you.”

“ _ You  _ didn't make me look like him,” she laughed bitterly. “Ron… They were friends.”

“Of course they were. They had to be, if they got married.”

Kari shook her head. She felt queasy. “My parents. And the Potter’s. They were friends. Before… before he betrayed them.”

Ron let out a breath. “Seriously?”

She nodded, folding the photo again so she could only see her mother. Tori Lowry-Black, in all her elegance, frozen in time. “And for that reason, I hope to everything that is sacred in this life that Harry  _ never _ finds out. Until… until I'm ready. There's no rush, anyways. He's going to be in Azkaban forever.”

He grunted in response. Finally he said, “any more truth bombs you feel like dropping on me before I head to bed?”

Chuckling, Kari shook her head. “I think that's it… Ron. Thank you. It helps. To talk about this.”

He sent her a smile before standing up and stretching. “What are friends for?”

“That mirror,” she said with a start, scrambling to look at him over the back of the couch, “you have to tell Harry. It's not safe. It doesn't feel  _ safe _ . He could get caught. He could-”

“I'll talk to him,” Ron said quickly, “don't go all Hermione on me. I'll talk to him.”

She nodded her thanks and sank back down into the cushions as Ron went back upstairs. Kari looked at the picture of her mother, wishing desperately she were still alive.


	7. Chapter 7

Hermione came back from Christmas break, and Kari found that she had actually missed her. Until she gave Kari a stack of books to read so she could help find Nicholas Flamel. Kari had no idea who this person was but was beginning to resent him. It felt like every waking moment they were worried about what it was that Dumbledore was hiding for him, what it was that Snape was trying to steal.

She was on her way back to the Common Room when she found herself face to face with Dumbledore himself. Kari blinked up at him and quickly put Nicholas Flamel out of her mind, worried the knowledge of the name would show on her face. “Hello, sir,” she said easily as she shifted from foot to foot.

Dumbledore smiled down at her. “I've been meaning to talk to you. Would you mind taking a walk with me?”

Startled but unable to think of a reason to say no, Kari nodded and fell into step next to him. He led her to the courtyard, where the air was still slightly chilly. “Are you settling into Hogwarts alright, Kari?”

She could not hide the look of surprise on her face. The Headmaster asking her how she was doing? She knew he hadn't done so with her friends. “Much easier than I thought it would be, Professor.”

He hummed happily, and looked up at the sky. “I'm pleased. I found my time at Hogwarts as a child to be a wonderful home away from home”.

Her gut twisted uneasily at his words. She stopped short and crossed her arms. “Harry told you about what I saw. In the mirror. I know you ran into him.”

Dumbledore turned his gaze on her, blue eyes warmer than her mother’s but just as piercing. “He told me what  _ you  _ told him you saw.”

Kari blinked. “My parents.”

“He's under the assumption you meant your adoptive ones.”

Her blood turned cold. “He doesn't know who my father is. What he did.”

“And I have no intention of telling him your secret,” he told her quickly. He began to walk again, waiting for Kari to catch up. “I know the weight behind it, of you trying to be your own person.”

Kari frowned. “Just my father. I wouldn't mind being like my mother. What little I know of her sounds alright. Even if she was in Slytherin.”

Dumbledore chuckled. “You're more like your mother than you know. She too kept secrets to keep her friends safe. Tori was… an astounding woman.”

“You knew her well?” Kari breathed.

“I knew her well,” said Dumbledore kindly. “And I understand your hesitation at going back to that mirror.”

“It was wrong,” she said hotly. “That isn't my greatest desire.”

Dumbledore smiled again, his eyes sparkling behind his spectacles. “Sometimes even our strongest desires aren't known to us, Kari. There is no shame in wanting the life you deserved. Fate has a way of showing us what we want even before we realize it. Now… if you'll excuse me…”

Kari nodded as she watched him cross the courtyard to Snape. He stared at her darkly. She couldn't help but scowl back.

*

By the time she got back to the Common Room, her brain was exhausted. She couldn't shake Dumbledore’s words. Kari knew the man was brilliant, but she doubted him. There was no way she would ever want to be in the same room as her father, let alone grow up with a murderer. 

“What have I missed?” Kari as asked as she crossed over to Harry and Ron. “Where's Hermione?”

Ron scooted over to give her space to sit. “Dunno. Ran up to her dormitory. But guess what? Harry found where he'd seen Nicholas Flamel’s name!”

“What?!” Kari cried as she turned to Harry, who was holding a Chocolate Frog card at her. She read it and began to laugh. “Of all the places to look. I eat so much Chocolate Frogs you'd think we would've run into it by now!”

Hermione came back with a heavy book, and quickly began to look through it. “I knew it!  _ I knew it!  _ Nicholas Flamel is the  _ only known maker of the Philosopher’s Stone!” _

Kari sank back and let out a breath while Harry and Ron educated themselves on what exactly that was. She quickly brought up all the things she knew about it, and just as quickly knew why Snape would want it. Infinite gold? Youth? Of course he would go after it.

But why couldn't Dumbledore see that? Stumped, Kari frowned down at the text. “Say Snape gets his hands on it,” she said quietly, “what good is it to him if he can't use it? No way will he risk having all that good and spending it. He'd be an idiot. Dumbledore would hunt him down.”

The others looked back at her, clearly just as baffled as she was.

*

The Quidditch match against Hufflepuff was over before she could worry too much about it, even with Snape as referee. She'd pulled George and Fred aside, telling them nothing about the Stone and their suspicions about Snape but asking them to keep an eye out.

“Just in case,” she'd said as she looked into George’s eyes. Fred had laughed it off, telling her that he'd written to the manufacturers of the Nimbus 2000 to tell them to tests their brooms better.

George had nodded slightly as Fred ran off towards the dressing room and placed a hand on her arm. “I'll throw bludgers at everyone who even gets close to him.”

“That  _ is _ your job.”

“I'll keep him safe.”

And then he didn't have to. Hermione and Ron hadn't had to use the Leg-Lock Curse on Snape, and the seize and pull charm Kari had been working on went unneeded. She barely noticed Ron launch himself at Malfoy for being a mouthy brat, but did manage to get a kick in when he'd pulled her robe in an attempt to get away from Ron.

But none of that mattered. All the adrenaline and happiness she'd felt as they waited for Harry to come upstairs disappeared as soon as she saw his face. Ignoring Ron and Hermione’s celebration, she stepped forward with a frown on her face. “Harry, what-”

He pulled them into an empty room to tell them of Snape. Cornering Quirrell, of Snape needing him to get past that three headed dog.

Kari felt her breath get knocked from her lungs as they realized the Stone was safe as long as Quirrell held out to Snape. She thought of his unpleasant face and mean demeanor. “I'll be back,” she said suddenly. With what she hopped was a casual walk, she made her way down, down the castle to the dungeons. Kari had no idea how she was going to accomplish what she had in mind.

“Black. Shouldn't you be with the rest of the Gryffindors… celebrating?”

She all but jumped in her skin at the sound of Snape’s slow drawl. Keeping her mind clear, she turned slowly and smiled. “I wanted to ask about your leg. I read about a potion in a book-”

“It's fine,” he snapped angrily. “Shall I phrase it another way? Why are you here.”

_ I won't let you hurt him.  _ She couldn't block the thought from her mind, and was sure some of it showed on her face. “Exams are coming up,” she lied lamely. “I came to ask if there's any pointers you could give me. In potions.”

“You're top of your class.”

“Am not,” she said quickly. “Hermione-”

“Then ask her!” Snape hissed. “Now if you don't hurry, you'll be caught out of bed after hours. It would be a shame for you to lose the points Potter so brilliantly won.”

Kari watched as he strode into his classroom, slamming the door behind him. Cursing under her breath, she made her way back upstairs. If she'd only gotten there a bit quicker, perhaps she could've snuck in to search for answers.

*

The following morning, while she sat in the Great Hall reading through Charms book and making notes in her head, Harry slumped in the seat in front of her. When he didn't say anything, she continued to eat her oatmeal until she finally sighed. “Alright. What terrible news do you bring with you this time?”

He couldn't quite pull off the glare over his glasses before saying, “Hagrid’s gone and got himself a dragon egg. Won it off a stranger. We saw it last night when we went to visit him.”

Kari stared stupidly at him, her oatmeal dropping from her spoon back into the bowl. “Do you think it's too late to go to a Muggle school?”

“Kari, this is serious.”

“So am I!” She whispered furiously as she shoved her oatmeal aside. “Did you hear what you just told me? A dragon egg, Harry. Dragon. Egg. That's gonna hatch soon, I wager. In less than a year we've seen a three headed-dog, battled a troll, and now - _ now!-  _ you waltz in here and tell me like it's perfectly normal that Hagrid has a  _ dragon egg!” _

_ “ _ It's not like I go out looking for bizarre things to tell you about!” He snapped back. “We went to ask him about the Stone - a bunch of teachers put enchantments on it, Snape included-” at her protest he shook her head and said, “I know, I know! That's one less he needs to figure out. And that's when the whole egg thing came about.”

Groaning, Kari dug into her backpack. “What kind of dragon egg is it? Maybe it's not so bad… Listen to me. Maybe it's not so bad. This bloody place.”

“A Norwegian Ridgeback,” Harry said miserably.

Kari shushed him before opening her copy of  _ Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.  _ “Do you want the bad news or the bad news? Oh, I'll just tell you both,” she said before he could answer, ignoring his scowl. “It has venomous fangs, because you know, pointy ones aren't bad enough. And they learn to shoot flames earlier than any other breed. Good thing Hagrid lives in a stone hut! Oh, that's right, he  _ doesn't! _ Harry, he's got to get rid of it.”

Harry shook his head. “He's wanted a dragon, he told me so the first day I met him.”

“I've wanted a unicorn but that's not bloody likely to happen, is it!” She replied hotly. “Harry, he's going to get himself burnt to a crisp. That is, if he doesn't get eaten first.”

“Will you just… research? About dragons?”

Kari raised an eyebrow. “Why me? Why not Hermione?”

“Because she's going insane studying for finals.”

“Oh, that's fine then. It's not like I want to pass them. Maybe I'll just stay a First Year forever and have to relive this year over and over as a penance for-” she stopped suddenly, as her father’s name began to tumble from her lips.

Harry hadn't noticed. Standing, he grinned down at her and said, “you're always bragging about learning by osmosis. I know the only reason you're staying away from Hermione is so you don't have to take the study schedule she made for you.”

“It's bloody useless,” she grumbled angrily as she heaved her bag over her shoulder. “I already finished the extra homework, and if I study more I'll start to second guess myself. Fine. I'll head to the library. Just… let me know if anything changes.”

“What do you-”

“It's gonna hatch eventually!” Kari snapped before leaving a laughing Harry behind.


	8. Chapter 8

_ It's hatching. _

Kari stared at the letter Harry had just gotten and sighed heavily, wondering what normal Muggle kids were learning back home. Math, probably. Explorers finding the New World. World history.

Suddenly realized she wouldn't trade this for anything.

“Alright then. When are we going?” Her voice betrayed none of the uneasiness she felt.

“Now!” Ron said quickly as he looked between all of them.

Hermione looked appalled. “And miss class?! No. No way. There's nothing we can do for Hagrid-”

Kari pinched the bridge of her nose while she listened to them bicker. It wasn't until Harry hissed at them to shut up that she noticed Malfoy. “He heard something,” she breathed as her stomach sunk.

By the look on Harry’s face, she knew she was right.

She was really starting to hate being right all the time.

*

Herbology was proving to be her downfall. Seeing the words on a page and remembering them at a moment’s notice is one thing, but Kari quickly found out that she has no green thumb. At all. Hermione attempted to help by telling her the same thing that the book did, and Kari found herself snapping more often than not before switching places with Seamus in order to put some space between her. It's a frustrating thing, to have the knowledge that the books offer and not being able to make it work like she can in every other class.

By the end of the class, when she's wound up about going to Hagrid’s and his hatching egg, she manages to knock off the pot she's so carefully been nurturing (and somehow has failed to keep from wilting, no matter how much she begged it to stay green). The bell rung, and all she can do is stare at her pot in horror.

“Go,” Kari breathed as she began to grab a broom and pan, smacking Harry’s hand away as he tried to help. “Go! He might need help. I'll be there as soon as I can.”

“You'll need to replant-”

“I  _ know _ ,” she snarled at Hermione, sending her a glare. “Please. Go. Someone needs to be there.”

They leave her to the mess she finds herself scowling at, and she can't help but wonder why on earth she will ever need to know how to plant anything in this world.

“Black.” The Herbology teacher said warmly as she smiled at her and the dirt at her feet. “Still struggling?”

Kari sighs. “A tad. I wish I could just… Magic it into being less stubborn.”

Professor Sprout laughed kindly as she reached down to help. “It's a tricky sort of magic, in its own way.”

“So I've been told,” Kari muttered under her breath. They work in silence, humming her thanks as she's handed a new pot. By the end, her small plant is looking a bit sad and lopsided in its new home. She sends a look it's way before racing out the door, hollering her thanks as Professor Sprout waves.

The last time she ran this fast, she was racing up the stairs in her parents home, still dizzy with joy at the thought of being accepted at Hogwarts. Now she's running to something she never thought possible, seeing the birth of a dragon.

She was running so fast she almost missed the body racing past her. Kari stopped in her tracks and looked over her shoulder, recognizing the bright bleach blond hair in an instant. Torn between chasing after him and demanding to know why he had been at Hagrid’s and to continue her journey to the hut, she chooses the later. There's no way she can interrogate him without knowing what he knows.

Breathless and sweaty, she pounds on the door of the hut. Harry opens it a bit before letting her in. “Did you see-”

“Malfoy, yeah.” The heat is unbearable. Kari ripped off her cloak and scarf, before going over the table that the little dragon is on. “It looks like a snake with wings.” It's enough to make her shudder.

Ron looked over at her, clearly thinking the same thing. Hagrid is too overcome by his new baby, ignoring Kari’s voice. 

“Don't you think, oh I don't know, one of us should be going after Malfoy?” Kari snapped angrily as they left the hut and the dragon in it. “He saw  _ something. _ He's bound to tell someone.”

Hermione looked torn. “Maybe… Maybe we just wait and see? Even if he thinks he knows something, he has no proof.”

Kari rolled her eyes. “Because it wouldn't be too hard to drag Snape down here to show him the bloody dragon.”

In the end the reluctantly decide to wait it out. Every time Malfoy sauntered nearby, with that stupid smirk on his face, she debated whipping out her wand and whacking him repeatedly over the head with it. It amazes her now to think that the least of her concerns is the possibility of him knowing her parentage, and blabbing it to the school.

Who would've thought it would only take a dragon to make her secret seem less dangerous?

*

By the end of the week, Harry and Ron had come up with a plan to send baby Norbert to Ron’s brother in Romania. She found herself hiding in the entrance hall, cloak drawn as she waited for Harry and Hermione to come to the castle with Norbert in tow, safely hidden under the Invisibility Cloak. Kari had volunteered to stay behind to keep an eye out for patrols, and was to send and enchanted paper crane their way if there was danger.

Ron, who had been bit earlier in the week by the dragon, had told her she was clearly reading advanced charms. Instead of denying it, she told him he was just delirious from the fever.

“Oh thank everything.” She let out the breath she had been holding in, scanning the hall before quietly rushing forward at the sound of of creaking crate and slight snorting. “This won't do, I could hear you all the way across the hall.”

“Would you like me to ask Norbert to keep it down?” Came Harry’s snappy response from under the cloak.

Kari scowled at the spot where it had come from before raising her wand and muttering, “ _ quietus.”  _ Satisfied by the silence that fell around her, she began to feel for the cloak before slipping inside and positioning herself on one end of the crate to help bear the load. At the incredulous look on Hermione’s face, she sighed. “With the amount of sneaking around we do, and how loud we are, I figured it'd come in handy.”

“Is now really the time?” Harry hissed, his voice strained by the weight of the crate. With no objections voiced, he began to move forward.

All was well and then an unexpectedly, slightly terrifying and then welcome surprise greeted them. Malfoy, the stupid git, caught roaming out of bed by McGonagall of all people. Even with him shouting about Harry having a dragon, the fool clearly hadn't brought the letter from Charlie that had been in the book he'd “borrowed” from Ron a couple days earlier. Without it, he might as well be telling McGonagall that he had seen a unicorn doing a jig in the castle. Even with the Quieting Charm, she dared not to laugh since couldn't guarantee the bark of laugher that was threatening to come out would be silenced by it. Instead she bit the inside of her cheeks and grinned wildly at Harry, who also looked like Christmas had come early for him.

Finally McGonagall dragged Malfoy away and they were free to continue up the Astronomy Tower. Free of the cloak, Kari paced a bit before looking up at the night sky. It was clear, and from up here, the constellations bright.

“Harry! I think… Is that them?” Kari asked as she raced to the edge of the tower. She looked down at the crate, and as if the dragon could sense her disapproval of it, it huffed angrily. A large cloud of smoke rose and stung her eyes. “No love lost here either, pal.” Kari murmured before walking over to greet Charlie’s friends. They helped them rig Norbert on, waved goodbye and grinned.

They'd done it. 

The dragon was gone.

Giddy with delight, Kari followed Harry and Hermione down the spiral staircase. “Can you believe it? We did it! We actually pulled it off, I- ouch! Bloody hell, Harry. What-”

Kari peeked over her shoulder and gasped as Filched stepped out of the shadows. “Well, well, well. We  _ are _ in trouble.”

Horrified, she realized they were quite visible.

For all their brilliant scheming and execution, The-Boy-Who-Lived, the brightest witch of their age and the **_idiot_** who always got dragged along,  _ all of them _ , had forgotten the Invisibility Cloak upstairs.

*

 

The look McGonagall shot her told her this was not the first time a Black had sat in her office, after hours, caught breaking the rules. While Hermione sat as still as a statue, she found herself relaxed. She couldn't even be mad they'd been caught. They had helped Hagrid, gotten rid of something that surely would have gotten him in even more trouble than they surely were in. To her, it was an even trade to help a friend. If there was a price to pay for that she'd gladly take it.

She only wished Neville, sweet and terrified Neville wasn't in the same boat as they were. He'd overheard Malfoy’s plan and had come to warn them. Had been caught even more easily than they were.

At the news that they had lost so many points for the school, her chin flew into the air and held McGonagall’s stare. When they were dismissed, she stood easily and ushered her friends out.

“Black. A word please.”

Harry stared at her at Kari before saying, “this wasn't her idea, Professor.”

“Potter, to bed,  _ now _ , before I take even more points.”

Kari shook her head at him. “Go. I'll fill you in later.”

The walk back to McGonagall’s desk felt endless. She crossed her arms and set her jaw. “Professor.”

“Should I start by saying I'm not surprised you were caught in this scheme?” McGonagall said sternly. “Black, I know you've talked to Professor Dumbledore about your parents. Let me say that your father was as mischievous as the Weasley twins. You do not have to prove you're like him.”

Her jaw dropped. “I wasn't trying-”

“Then perhaps you could refrain from rule breaking? If your goal is to be nothing like him, then surely you know the path to that is to  _ not _ follow in his footsteps.”

“I hardly think being caught after hours is the path to ending up in Azkaban for butchering people,” Kari hissed angrily. At McGonagall’s glare, she forced herself to calm down before saying, “but I will, of course, keep your advice in mind.”

McGonagall let out a snort, before shaking her head. “Very well. Go to bed, Black. I-”. The older woman stopped, and shook her head again. “I suppose it's not as bad as some as your father’s infractions. Or your mother’s even.”

At this, Kari perked up. “My mother? She… she also was…”

“Not as much as your father,” McGonagall looked less stern, and Kari could've sworn there was a smile on her face. “Or perhaps she was just better at not getting caught. He… he was not known for his subtlety.”

“And James? Harry’s dad?”

Surprise splashed through McGonagall’s face. “No,” she said slowly, not quite looking at Kari. She seemed to be thinking of a memory from long ago. “He was not known for his subtlety either. Not unlike you and Potter. But again, that does not mean I want you be teaching miniature versions of them. I have had quite my fill of them, thank you very much.”

Kari let out a huff of laughter. “I'll strive to be less like him. In all regards. Thank you, Professor… And I  _ am _ sorry.”

“Sorry you were caught, I'm sure.” McGonagall smiled again. “Now. To bed. No detours.”

Kari nodded, said her thanks and left. Her way to the Common Room was uneventful, but she felt lighter than she had in ages.


	9. Chapter 9

Harry's new policy to not meddle in things suited Kari just fine. It was, after all, what she had set out to do during her time at Hogwarts, which had obviously gone horribly wrong. She wasn't getting the heat quite as much as Harry, and glared at anyone who insulted him. By the end of the first day after the school found out some idiot First Years had cost Gryffindor their cushiony lead for the House Cup, Kari’s face was set into a permanent scowl.

“I get what they're mad,” she said as she settled herself into the couch in front of the fire, causing a couple of other students to get up but not before glaring at her. “But we helped Hagrid. That's what's important.”

She knew it was bad when Harry didn't say anything in response, and instead dug his nose in a book. The look of misery on his face did nothing to make her feel like her statement held an ounce of truth.

And then there was Neville, who was going out of his way to avoid them, no matter how much they tried to say they were sorry.

Only George and Fred seemed less annoyed with her than anyone else. Kari wouldn't tell them what they'd been up to so late at night, something that George was not letting go.

“And now you're studying?” He scrunched up his nose as he found her in the library. “They scare all the fun out you, Black?”

Kari rolled her eyes at him, thinking of McGonagall. “Hardly. Figured I'd keep my nose down for a bit before I go and single handedly hand Slytherin the House Cup. Or is that not the goal?”

George grinned. “So. You gonna cave and tell me what you lot were up to?”

“Nope,” she said as she smiled sweetly. “After all, you've still got so much to teach me. Like how not to get caught.”

“Go away, George.” Ron came up behind him, with Hermione in tow. “We have to study.”

George rose from his seat, winking at her. “Told you. You're going soft on me.”

Kari laughed softly, before groaning at the book in Hermione’s hands. “Oh come on. Astronomy again?”

“Do _you_ know all the star charts off by heart? If you say all you have to do is close your eyes and see them, I'll beat you with the book to knock it out of your brain.” Hermione said and she sat down and opened the book.

Bored, she placed her hands on her chin while Hermione quizzed Ron. She spotted Harry walk in and brightened instantly. “Harry! What's… oh no. What's wrong?”

Harry had a dark look on his face, and she quickly understood why. He'd just heard Snape break Quirrell. Kari’s mind raced, thinking of all the enchantments still in place and how quickly he'd be able to get through them. A sour teacher he may be, but she could not deny he was brilliant.

*

They received their detentions letters the next morning during breakfast, and while Harry, Ron and Hermione were to go to meet Filch, Kari looked down at her letter dully.

“ _Snape_ ?!” Ron cried out as he yanked it from her hand to read it. “You have to deal with _Snape?!_ ”

Kari looked up at the teacher’s table, where Snape caught her eye and looked just as thrilled as she felt. “Well, if you suddenly see a new ingredient in Potions class, know that I went down valiantly.”

“It won't be so bad.” Hermione tried to say confidently but the uncomfortable look on her face betrayed her.

At eight o'clock that night, well before the others were set to go to their detention, Kari made her way to the bowels of the castle where her hours of hell were waiting. She told herself to make the best of it, to remind herself that perhaps she can get a look into Snape’s motivate for stealing the Stone.

Letting out a snort of laughter, she knew she was more likely to get Snape to tell her stories of his childhood before he told her why he's out to rob Dumbledore. Lifting her hand to knock on the door, she let out a groan before finally pounding on the door.

His slow answer to come in, the already annoyed tone of it, made her stomach drop and her feet turn to cement.

It was cold in the dungeons, and she found herself grateful that she was smart enough to have worn a sweater under her robes. “Professor,” she said dully as she stepped inside, her waves of dark brown hair framing her face in a much more elegant way than his curtain of greasy hair.

“You're to sort ingredients tonight, Black. Cutting more for the stock room, cleaning the scales and vials, divide them into their appropriate boxes. You will also be organizing my notes on recipes. Any questions?”

Kari frowned. “When am I free to go?”

Snape looked up from the papers he was grading. “When I say you're free to go, you'll know. Get to work.”

Annoyance bubbled in her blood but she held back the retort that was on the tip of her tongue. She made her way over to the bench where a bunch of ingredients had been laid out, taking in the quantity of it. Though she knew this was meant as punishment, the sight of them and the idea that every single one of them will be used as a potion made her smile. She appreciates  the art of potion brewing enough to see the potential of everything in front of her. “Cool,” she breathed softly as she sat on the stool and began to organize her station, starting with the vials. Some of them look like they haven't been used in a while, sticky with residue from previous potions.

It took her nearly an hour to get all the vials looking as good as new, and her arm was sore by the end of it. Dragging a weary hand over her face, she glanced at what's left and decided to organize the Rolodex of potion notes Snape keeps.

She barely touched it when it suddenly exploded. Kari cried out, trying to shield her eyes from the horrible black goo that exploded in an impressive spray everywhere. It's no use. It was on her hair, clothes, the desk and the vials she had just labored over.

“The mop is in the supply closet. I left some rags there as well.”

Kari’s head whipped up at the sound of Snape’s voice. Something like satisfaction is laced in it. “You think this is funny?”

Snape once again looked up at her, those black eyes boring into hers. “I think you should be prepared to clean up your friend’s messes, if that's the company you choose to keep. Enjoy your mess, Miss Black. Compliments of the Weasley Twins.”

Her jaw dropped. She looked at the Rolodex, the last bit of goo oozing out. “They jinxed it. So that the next time you touched it would…”

“Yes. I'm sure they thought they were being quite poetic, something about goo and my hair. Did you not wonder _why_ you ended down here for detention while your other friends went with Filch?”

Kari raised her jaw in annoyance. “You needed a meat shield to open this up and didn't want to get your hands dirty, is that it?”

“Foolish girl. I could've done the counter curse for it, and their silly plot would've failed. As if I don't know how I leave my things and where. No. This is to teach you a small lesson: your friends, as hilarious as you may find them, do things that cause consequences. And someone always ends up paying the price. Tonight that was you. You can thank them for it. Remember Black, for all your noble intentions, sticking your nose in other people's business always ends up… blowing up in your face.”

It sounded like a threat. Kari narrowed her eyes, saying nothing further and headed to the supply closet. By the end of the night (which went much more uneventful than it had started), she was sore and tired but a bit glad. She ignored Snape’s warning about the twins. After all, it was just a bit of harmless fun towards someone who made some students’ lives a torment in his class. What she had not expected was to learn so much from his notes as she organized them. There were things there that made her rethink the way the book said to do something, and saw that even though it was a science in its own way, she could adjust it to make a potion even greater.

Snape had not appreciated her bursts of awe every time she got to a note that truly impressed her. He glared at her, until she rolled her eyes and continued with her work silently… until she got to the next bit of information that interested her. It occurred to her that perhaps he did not consider that she would take an interest in _what_ she was organizing, and decided that was his mistake. Kari thought he was a fool if he didn't realize by now that she was no ordinary student, merely muddling her way through the years.

She was here to become the best she could be, so that in some way, she could balance the harm her father had caused.

“Kari!”

The alarm in the boy’s voice stopped her short as she entered the common room. The twins were waiting for her, and by the look on their faces they knew what was on her.

Fred started to laugh. He laughed so hard he had to hold onto the couch for support. George, on the other hand, looked sheepish and moved towards her with a towel. “Already tried it,” she told him with a smile. “Impressive stuff, boys.”

“That git,” George grumbled as he tossed the towel on her hair and began to rub it. “We didn't think he'd use someone else to open it.”

“He knew it had been enchanted. Ow, George. Don't rip out my hair. Gooey and hairless wouldn't be a good look on me, I wager.” He stopped immediately and Kari pulled the towel off. “S’alright. He lectured me about the friends I keep. Figures I should be boring like him and have no friends at all.”

Fred took a deep breath, finally subsiding. “He knew it was enchanted?”

“He must be meticulous about where he leaves things,” she told them as she took off her robes, sighing at her ruined sweater. “He knew it'd been moved.”

“What the bloody hell happened to you?”

Kari looked over George’s shoulder at Ron. “Snape.”

Ron scrunched up his nose. “Ew.”

She let out a laugh before glancing at the clock. “Going to wait for Harry and Hermione?”

“Thought about it,” Ron said as he looked at the twins. “What are you lot doing here?”

George shook his head. “Long story.”

“I'm going to shower to… get this gunk off,” Kari mumbled as she shook her hair, some of the goo creeping from her ear. Gagging, she looked at the twins. “What _is_ it? The smell is horrible.”

“You don't want to know,” Fred chuckled.

Kari considered this, before nodding. “You're probably right. Well. Shower for me. I'll be down in a bit, Ron.”

“Kari-” George said as she started to walk away. “We _are_ sorry.”

“A little, anyways. Either way, it was hilarious.”

She waved away their apology, wanting a shower more than anything at this point. “It's fine. I'll see you two tomorrow.”

By the time she felt somewhat clean and most of the gunk is off, it's near midnight. She put on her nightgown and robe, and made her way to the common room where Ron had fallen asleep. Kari sighed and settled herself in front of the fire. Thinking of the night's events, of the potion notes, she couldn’t deny that Snape is a brilliant Potions Master. But it wasn’t potions guarding the Stone, it was Fluffy. It's the only thing that made her feel better, knowing that he'd tried before and failed to get past him. Could he use a potion on him? She racked her brain to think of anything in that Rolodex, with its now dry but curling edges (it's a wonder he didn't make her rewrite it all, she'd have been there all night) and…

“You're up! Good. Ron. Ron, wake up!”

She shook her head, breaking free of the haze and focusing on Harry. “How did your detention go? Better than mine, I bet.”

It hadn't. It'd been worse, much worse. Every time Harry said Voldermort’s name, it was a new terrifying slash on her already frayed nerves.

“Ghosts can't hurt physical things,” she said finally, while Harry paced. “If it _was_ Voldemort-”

“ _Stop saying his name!_ Bad enough that he won't stop!” Ron cried angrily.

Kari turned to him, glaring. “Voldemort, Voldermort, Voldermort.”

Ron looked at her, stunned.

“Maybe it was Snape,” Harry said quickly.

“No chance,” Kari shrugged. “I've been with him since I left. I only just got back an hour ago. Say it was Voldemort- FINE, Ron. FINE. You-Know-Who. Say it is him. How is he able to hurt something as strong as a unicorn?”

Harry shook his head, rubbing the scar on his forehead. “He was the most powerful wizard who ever lived. I'm sure the laws of magic don't apply to him.”

 _Remember Black, for all your noble intentions, sticking your nose in other people's business always ends up… blowing up in your face_.

Could've it been a threat and not simply a warning about the friends she made? Kari wasn’t sure, but Harry was already so certain that it was Snape that she doesn't share this with the group. As foul as he was, Kari isn't wasn’t convinced as Harry that it is him. Without another name to give, she kept her thoughts to herself. Now it seems that not only did she have exams to worry about, but potentially a man they all thought dead.

A man her father had supposedly followed and betrayed Harry’s family for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I huuuuge thanks for this chapter goes to heylittleriotact. Gooey Rolodexes and snark. You're the best. <3


	10. Chapter 10

Kari glowed during her practical exams, something that seemed to catch her teachers off guard, much to her annoyance. Professor McGonagall, especially, seemed just as annoyed as Kari feels once she realized this. “You do this well in your assignments and tests, and yet you don't _apply_ yourself in class. I just don't understand it, Black.”

“A mystery for the ages, Professor,” Kari muttered under her breath as she watched her mouse-turned-snuffbox.

Professor Flitwick seemed delighted by her tap-dancing pineapple, at how effortless it had been for her.

Snape, on the other hand, breathed down her neck as she brewed her last potion for the year. Hermione seemed horrified as she watched Kari make a small correction to her recipe, but unable to say anything in the middle of the exam she could do nothing but sigh. Smiling to herself, Kari knew it would come out better than what the book said. She was, after all, using a note from Snape’s Rolodex. As Snape walked around the room at the end of the class to begin marking, and Kari’s potion is the prettiest of them all, she beams at him and says, “ _thank you_ , Professor.”

By the end of exams, Kari was sure she'd done well enough to be close to Hermione in grades and is in no danger of having to repeat First Year. She loosened her tie while Hermione went over the tests with her since Ron has told her it makes him ill. Kari wished she'd thought to say that as well. “Hermione, will you relax?” She said finally with a laugh. “It's over. I'm sure you did great.”

Harry jumped up. Kari glanced up at him, eyebrows raised. “We've got to go and see Hagrid. Now.”

Kari groaned. “Can't we stay under the shade? It's so cool here and very warm everywhere else.”

But Harry was having none of it. “Don't you think it's a bit odd that what Hagrid wants most is a dragon egg and a stranger turns up with one in his pocket?”

Catching up to him, and grumbling about the heat, she can't help but be annoyed. “We live in a magical castle, with a three headed dog, just had to enchant a fruit to tap dance and you think it's odd that a stranger had a dragon egg?”

“How many wizard’s go around with dragon eggs, if it's against wizarding law?” Harry snapped.

“Well?” Kari said to Ron. “You would know, your brother works with dragons.”

Ron ignored her. Irritated now, Kari slowed down, wishing she'd left her robe back in the dormitory. Of course, by the time they've talked to Hagrid and realize that the stranger he'd spoken to was no stranger at all but rather someone (Kari still can't think Snape. Even with a voice changing spell, Hagrid can't be daft enough to _not_ recognize him) who very obviously wanted to give him an egg in exchange for trading the secret to manage Fluffly.

And Hagrid. Sweet, naive, blundering Hagrid had given it to him.

Music. The most unexpected thing to calm a three-headed dog, because of course it would be. She mulled this all over as they race back to the school to warn Dumbledore. It hit her that they have no idea where his office is. “I can go ask Fred and George,” she said quickly, struggling to keep calm. “They'll know.”

“What are all of you doing inside?”

McGonagall. No lies come to mind, no clever reply, no easy quip to get them out of telling the truth. Harry, left with no other alternative, does exactly that.

It goes as explosive as Kari thought it would. She does not miss the way McGonagall send her a withering glare as if to say “we _talked_ about this sort of thing.”

She leaves them with an order to go back outside, but they barely start moving forward when Snape finds them. Kari studies his face, can see it hiding something but still she can't bring herself to think he's in league with Voldermort. He too gives them a warning about wandering after hours and it's all Harry needs to be convinced it's happening tonight.

He sends Hermione to the Teacher’s Lounge, to keep an eye on Snape while they head to the third-floor corridor. But it's no use, McGonagall is there and lays into them all over again. Angry now, for children they may be but they _know_ something isn't right and _no one_ is listening, Kari storms back to the Common Room with Ron and Harry only to find out that Hermione has failed as well.

“Well that's it then, isn't it?” Harry said finality in his voice and a fire in his eyes.

And Kari believed him. Whoever it may be, whatever they're planning, it's bound to happen tonight with the knowledge of Fluffy and Dumbledore out of the castle. The realization of this causes her knees to buckle.

Once Hermione and Ron have declared their intention to go with him, all of them turn to stare at Kari. “I'm offended you even have to ask,” she said with a smile. “Of course I'm coming along.”

*

What she had not expected was having to use a curse at one of their own. Kari stared at the stone rigid Neville, his eyes wide but moving, and then at Hermione. “Are you _mad_ ?! We could've knocked him out, we could've done _something_ else! This is terrible.”

“There's no _time!_ ” Hermione snapped back, looking at Neville apologetically before walking off.

Kari stared after them, then back to Neville before throwing a blanket over him and rubbing his hand. “I'll get help,” she promised and wondered, if they had to topple friends to get results, what sort of night this would be.

The door to the third-floor corridor was already ajar by the time they got to it.

“If you want to go back, I won't blame you.” Harry said from beneath the robe.

Rather than give him an answer, Kari sent him a glare before pushing the door open. Harry began to play the wooden flute he'd brought with him, and the dog fell asleep. “Unbelievable,” she muttered under breath as she pulled off the Cloak.

Peering into the trap door, she watched as Harry went first into total darkness while Hermione played the music. Ron followed, hollering about how dark it was. “Idiots,” Kari said as she rolled her eyes. “ _Lumos._ ”

She jumped down after them, loosing the grip on her wand. The light went out. Hermione soon followed and Kari was supplied with new fuel for her nightmares. Hermione’s command to relax did nothing but terrify her more, and the plant’s vines snaked around her chest and neck. So petrified she way that she could barely listen to what the other three were talking about.

A blinding blue light shone around her, and the plant -Devil’s Snare, she heard Hermione say- eased away. Gasping for breath, Kari rolled away from the spot she'd been in moments before. “Effing biology,” she said between ragged breaths. “Effing plants. Sure down here with no light it grows like weeds.” Letting out one last massive shudder, she followed the others down the passageway where she could hear wings flapping.

Kari looked up in awe as they entered the room of winged keys fluttered around them. She spotted the brooms Harry had told them to mount and chased after the keys, following Harry’s command.

In the midst of all this craziness, Kari realized something: she _loved_ to fly. This was nothing like their Quidditch classes, where they barely went a couple feet off the ground. This was _freedom_. She didn't have the finesse that Harry did, or the strength that the Weasley twins had but the broom, even an older model like this, responded to her slightest touch and she moved quicker than she thought possible. Imagining the keys were the Quaffle, this suddenly became much more fun and she was able to forget they were racing to catch a key that would lead them to the next challenge.

Kari, Ron and Hermione cornered the key that Harry had singled out and they all cheered.

No sooner had they stepped foot in the next room, Kari groaned and said, “can't we just go back in that room and keep flying?”

She knew no one would answer her question. They stared at the massive Chess Game in front of them, and this time followed Ron’s lead. She was feeling confident and great about their chances until he said, “yes… It's the only way… I've got to be taken.”

He might as well have announced that he was hiding Voldemort in his pocket, the response would've been just as angry. They bickered back and forth, until logic won out but not for Kari.

“Please,” she said softly, her voice full of uncertainty and fear. “Don't do this. You don't know what'll happen.”

“Snape will win,” he whispered as he held her stare, “and You-Know-Who comes back.”

And with that he stepped forward, the giant white queen hit him clear across the face and he went limp. Kari heard herself scream, heard Hermione scream but neither moved. The game was not over.

Harry moved three spaces to the left and they won.

Snarling a curse, Kari raced over to Ron and felt for a pulse. “He's alive!” She cried and took off her sweater to shove under his head. “He needs help.”

“We have to keep moving,” Harry said miserably.

“We can't just _leave_ him!” She snapped back. “We don't know what that chess piece did!”

“We have to! Ron knew the risks, Kari. He sacrificed himself knowing we have to keep going. We're losing _time._ ”

Kari wanted to argue with him, to suggest she stay behind to watch over him but she knew he was right. Stifling a sob, she pushed the hair from his forehead gently and rose. Harry placed a hand on her shoulder, and she took comfort in it.

The smell in the next room hit her before they even walked in. “Troll,” she murmured as she took out her wand. “I'll never forget that smell.”

Thankfully it was knocked out, and it was one challenge they did not have to mess with. She thought of Ron back in the Chess Room and it felt like a hollow reward.

As soon as she walked into the next room she knew whose test this belonged to. Snape. Seven different bottles, not unlike the ones she'd spent hours cleaning up, stood in front of her. Would they have to brew a potion?

Hermione grabbed the parchment and read the note. A riddle. She listened carefully as Hermione read it. “Logic”, Kari breathed as she looked into Hermione’s eyes. “Brilliant. Okay. Seven bottles. Three poison, two wine, one gets us through the black fire the other safely through the purple.” She thought of the Rolodex, knew it couldn't have been a coincidence that she'd been selected for that detention.

“Do you think-” Hermione said as Kari begun to pace. She took Kari’s shush much better than normal.

“That one,” Kari said at last, pointing at the smallest bottle. “It'll get us through the black flame. I'm sure of it.”

“It's barely enough for one,” said Harry as he picked it up. “The one that leads back… Enough for both of you?”

“Yeah but-”

Harry shook his head vigorously. “Kari, listen to me. Go back, grab Ron and fly back to the castle. Get a message to Dumbledore, get McGonagall, get someone. I don't know how long I'll be able to hold him off.”

“I'm not leaving you.”

“Kari-”

“I'm not leaving you!” She roared as she spun to face him, fire in her eyes as her body shook with anger. “I can't follow you in there? Fine! But if something happens to you, he _has_ to come out this way and I'll try to hold him off until Hermione gets help.”

“You're just a kid,” he said softly.

Kari stepped forward and held his hand. “So are you. I'm not leaving you. I'll wait out here… Come back to me, Harry. I'll be pissed if I have to brew a potion to carry your ass out.”

He chuckled softly and turned to give Hermione more instructions. They watched her drink the vial for the purple fire and she was gone.

Harry turned to her and picked up the bottle. “Here I go.”

Kari watched him walk through the flame, her heart too big in her throat as she whispered, “come back to me. Be safe”.


	11. Chapter 11

Kari didn't know how long she'd been pacing for. Minutes? Hours? Eternity? Time seemed to stand still, and more than once she raced over to where she'd set down the riddle to make sure her friends had not met horrible fates at the hands of colourful fire.

“Miss Black!”

She looked over her shoulder, and gasped. “Professor Dumbledore! Hermione, did she-”

“Safe, she's safe. Harry-”

“He's not,” she breathed as she raced to the fire. “Voldermort. I haven't been able to magic the fire down. Professor-”

Dumbledore flicked his wand and the black fire subdued. “I must go.”

“I'm coming with you,” she told him firmly. “And I _know_ there's no time to argue, so shall we?”

“I can't guarantee your safety.”

Kari tilted her head at him. “Would I be down here if I thought I'd be safe?”

He laughed softly before setting forward, wand slightly raised. Kari followed, trying to stop the tremors going through her wand hand. She wasn't sure what to expect, and tried not to think of Harry’s body - broken, bloodied, beaten.

It was close. Her heart stopped for a second before it started to race. Quirrel, someone she would never expect down here was on top on Harry, who was struggling to overthrow him. She began to cast a curse, but Dumbledore beat her to it. Quirrell was thrown off and then let out an agonizing wail.

Pushing past Dumbledore, forgetting the danger they could still be in, she sprinted to Harry and dropped on her knees next to him. “He needs help,” her voice was steady, calm and not at all panicked. It surprised her. “He's alive but he needs-”

“I know,” Dumbledore murmured as he kneeled on his other side. “You did good. All of you.”

Kari glanced up at him. “He knew. This whole time. He thought it was Snape.”

“Professor Quirrel,” he corrected and looked over at the turban.

It was only then that she noticed the mirror it laid by. “Here? That's here? But why-”

“Harry got the Stone. The Mirror was my last barrier against anyone stealing it.”

Kari frowned. “I don't understand.”

Sighing, Dumbledore rose and went to stand in front of it. Finally, he said, “only someone who finds the Stone but not use it would be able to retrieve it.”

“But then why even bother getting it out at all?” Kari asked and then blinked. “Oh. I see. Someone who wanted it for their own reasons… they would've seen themselves with it but never be able to get it. It would have driven them to insanity.”

“Precisely. Now-”

But Kari wasn't finished. “Did you know? That we'd come down? To try to stop…”

“I suspected. One can never be sure.”

Angry, she looked up at him accusingly. “They got hurt. They could've died. Voldermort-”

“I know,” said Dumbledore heavily. “And I wish I could say you or your friends will never have to face him again but…”

Silence fell around them before she whispered. “He's… he's not truly gone, is he? And he’s going to keep trying to come back.”

She half expected him to lie. To give her lukewarm reassurances. To tell her that she was just a child and not to worry. So she was surprised when he went with the truth and said, “yes.”

Kari pondered this, the enormity of what he'd just said. She felt tired beyond her years. She pressed her hand to Harry’s heart before saying, “we need to get him to the Hospital Wing.”

Dumbledore turned to face her, a sad smile on his face. “Always the noble friend. Very well. Let's get Harry help.”

*

The final feast came and went, and Gryffindor won the House Cup. At the last minute the lot of them were awarded points for their adventures but Kari didn't care. All she could think about was going home. She said little during the train ride, and even less when they got to the Platform. She said her goodbyes to the twins (promising to write and maybe even visit during the summer) and then turned to Harry.

He grinned. “We did it.”

Snorting, Kari shook her head. “Close calls there for a bit, don't you think?”

“Yeah. He's gone though.”

She couldn't shake Dumbledore’s words from her head. Instead of burdening him with her worries, she smiled. “Well. I guess this is see you for two months. It'll be weird not seeing your face every day.”

“Kari?”

She glanced over her shoulder and lit up. “Dad! What are you-”

“Remembered how to get on,” he said with a wide smile. He grunted as his daughter launched herself into his arms. “These friends of yours?”

“Oh!” Kari breathed, and turned to Harry. “This is Harry, Dad.”

He shared a knowing look with his daughter, remembering the pictures in her album and her letters about the boy with the green eyes. “It's nice to finally meet you.”

“Oi! Kari!”

She turned and grinned at Ron. “Yeah?”

“You ready for two whole months of absolutely no danger?”

Kari laughed happily as she hooked her arm through Hermione’s and walked into the Muggle world. “How dull. How will I ever survive?”

Her father had broken off to talk to Hermione’s parents, and Ron’s mom was fussing over him. The Malfoys glanced over at her, at her family that was not the blood one that she'd hoped for but one she loved all the same. Kari turned to Hermione. “Well… this is it.”

“You did so well,” Hermione said, beaming. “I was worried for a bit.”

“Oh ye of little faith.” She glanced over at Harry who was exchanging words with his family. Sprinting over, she smiled at them before saying to Harry, “remember that leg-lock curse, eh? Might come in handy.”

His cousin’s face turned white before his mother ushered him away. Harry grinned at the wink she sent his way.

“Ready, Mouse?”

Kari saw Ron trying to keep from laughing. “Don't,” she advised as she ducked George’s bone breaking hug.

She walked to her father, waving to her friends as they walked away from the platform. Hermes hooted happily.

“Was it all you imagined it would be?” Keith asked, helping her get her things into a cab.

Kari looked behind her at the platform, thinking of all the near death experiences and happy memories she'd made this year. Of a new fear to join the baggage she'd originally brought along.

Smiling, she said, “It was all of that and more.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've stuck along this long, thank you. You've opened up a world for all the characters that constantly bickered in my head for the last 10+ years. I am so very excited to keep on writing about Kari and eventually share with you her mother and her friends.
> 
> Thank you, thank you, thank you.


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